The Comstock King's Daughter
by TheKnittingLady
Summary: Did you ever wonder why Spencer started carrying a revolver?
1. Chapter 1

_**Part 1**_

 _Two things revolutionized life: moving to the country and falling in love._

 _\- Nick Love_

* * *

 **Chapter 01**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

"Hey Junior G-Man." Penelope called out as she brought the last of the day's work down. "It's Dr. Who premier night. Want to come over and watch with me?"

"Um, no thank you." Spencer replied.

"What, did you finally get a TV?" Ooo, hey, this was exciting. "Cable? Internet service? I will build you the best system. We can game together."

"Um, no, no TV." Why was he not looking at her? "Um, actually would you record it for me?"

"Sure. Wait, you're skipping Dr Who?"

"Um, yeah. I have something to do tonight."

"What could possibly be more important that Dr. Who...ooooo!" There could only be one thing. Penelope's eyes went wide. "Do you have a date?" Spencer slowly turned beet red as he refused to look up. "Oh my god, you do have a date!"

"Yes, all right. I have a date."

"Oh. My. God! With who and where to?"

"With whom."

"Whatever! Tell me!"

"Tell me what?" JJ said as she and the newbie, Tara Lewis, approached the cluster of desks.

"Our boy has a date tonight!" Penelope replied.

"Nice." Tara said.

"Awww, that's great Spence." JJ kind of hugged him a little, and mouthed _tell you later_ to Tara behind his back. "Who's the lucky girl?"

"Um, Dr. Sara Peabody. She, um, teaches mathematics at Georgetown."

"Nice. So, first date, where are you taking her?"

"Um, no, actually, and we're going to dinner and then a movie."

"Very nice." Morgan said as he joined the group. "Who's the lucky lady? And are you taking her back to your place after, lover?"

"Mathematics professor over at Georgetown." Penelope said.

"And as a wise friend once said to me, baby steps, baby steps." Spencer replied with a smile.

They all laughed at that and then merrily shooed him out the door. "Okay, so what is the big deal?" Tara asked once he was gone.

"The last girl he was interested in, and I mean he fell in love with her hard, was shot in front of him by her stalker." JJ said as they started walking to Penelope's lair. "Before they had a chance to go out or anything."

"But he fell in love with her."

"Correspondence. It was very real for him."

"She didn't make it?"

"Nope. Died in his arms on scene."

"Oh man. Is this is first time back on the horse?"

"He went out for coffee with someone back in March." Penelope replied. "But they really didn't click at all."

"Got it." Tara nodded. "So this is a big deal."

"Big deal." JJ nodded.

"So, Sara Peabody from Georgetown." Penelope started typing.

"Wait, you're running background on his girlfriend?" Tara asked. "Did you do this for all his dates?"

"We do this for everyone's dates." Morgan replied. "If it goes more than one."

"Seriously?"

"Oh, we get so many crazies." JJ said. "You can't be too careful."

"So I have this to look forward to?"

"Reid's girl was shot by her stalker." Penelope said, looking over her shoulder. "I had one guy shoot a teammate and try to blow up three others, and another one shoot me and try to take over the unit..."

"That was my first shooting." JJ said. "Emily was hunted down by a former boyfriend. Granted she was undercover at the time..."

"And Kate's girl was kidnapped by a guy she thought she was dating." Morgan said. "And Gideon's girl was killed by an Unsub."

"Okay. Okay." Tara sounded resigned to her fate. "I get it. Sara Peabody."

Penelope went back to typing. "Sara Peabody. Okay, she's 30, originally from San Francisco, never married, only family is a brother Thomas Peabody, CEO of Peabody Engineering."

"Oh they're big." Tara said.

"Yeah, looks like money in the family. No warrants, no priors, a couple of tickets for speeding..."

"California driving is not DC driving."

"Very true. Okay here we go." Penelope pulled up what looked like a faculty picture of a pretty blue-eyed red head.

"I thought he had a thing for blonds." JJ said.

"So did I. I don't know why he never dated Seaver." Penelope said. "Former teammate." She said to Tara.

"He tried." JJ replied. "She couldn't stand him. Too nerdy."

"Her loss."

"Did you two ever go out?" Tara asked JJ.

"Once." JJ replied. "We decided to remain friends."

"Eight years and we still don't have the details." Penelope said.

"And you never will." JJ replied.

"I know her from somewhere." Morgan said.

That was unexpected. "From where?" Penelope asked.

"I don't know but she looks familiar. I know I never dated her, not my type."

"Interview her? Person of interest?" JJ asked.

"No, not from work." Morgan shook his head. "Somewhere though. I will figure this."

"This is weird." Penelope said.

"Oh no." JJ said.

"No, not that weird but weird. According to this she has some kind of sealed record with CPS."

"But not a criminal record?" Tara asked.

"Not that I can tell."

"Nothing since then?" JJ asked.

"Nope." Penelope replied. " Looks like after the record was sealed she graduated from St. Margaret's boarding school, went on to MIT, doctorate in Mathematics, worked there for two years, then moved to Georgetown two years ago. Absolutely nothing exciting anywhere."

"Whatever it was either she was the victim or she turned her life around." Morgan said. "I'm not one to hold something like that against anyone."

"As long as it doesn't come around to bite Spence in the backside." JJ replied. "Speaking of biting though, isn't tonight Movie Club night?"

"Book club night." Penelope replied. "Movie club is on Tuesdays."

"Which is the one he's not supposed to miss?"

"Movie club."

"Sure?"

"Okay, someone translate for me?" Tara asked.

The three others shared a look, then Morgan got up and closed the door. "Okay, this never leaves this room." JJ said.

"Okay." Tara agreed.

"Back in, I think it was '08, we had a case down in Atlanta." Morgan said. "The Unsub took pretty boy hostage."

"It was my fault." JJ said. "We split up and I..."

"Hey, stop that." Penelope said, taking her friends hand.

"The Unsub shared his favorite recreational substance." Morgan said. "Dilaudid cut with LSD."

"Ouch." Tara said. "How much?"

"Eight hits in about thirty-six hours." Morgan replied. Tara whistled. "Thing was, the senior agent who was supposed to walk him through the protocol for substance exposure after...didn't. And didn't say anything to Hotch who didn't follow up..."

"Oh hell. That senior agent still with the Bureau?"

"Nope. Unsub. Reid got clean on his own a couple months later. It never made it into his jacket."

"And you all want to keep it that way. Thank you for trusting me with it. So Movie Night is...NA?"

"Yeah." JJ said. "Eight years now."

"Thing is, it's a closed meeting for cops and agents." Penelope said. "Which we are also not supposed to know about."

"So it's not in his jacket but odds are someone is keeping a look out for him."

"Yeah."

"Eight years though, good for him. So what's Book Club night then?"

They thought about it a moment. "You know, I have no idea." JJ said.

"Not a clue." Penelope replied.

"When did it start?"

"After Maeve died."

"That might have something to do with it." Tara said. "Grief counseling maybe."

"That would make sense." JJ replied. "But I'm not going to ask him. We should wait for him to tell us."

* * *

.

* * *

Notes: Before anyone worries that I'm not going to finish The Watcher, I am. I'm going to finish chapter 30 today and 31 and 32 likely tomorrow. It's been kind of stymied because chapter 31 bore a strong resemblance to some recent events here in the US and I decided it would be distasteful in the extreme to keep it the way it was so it needed to be re-written which is not going easily. It might just end up ending a little more quickly than I like. In the meantime this one decided to fall out of my word processor and since I haven't written one rated T in a very long time I decided to get it going. Call it an early Christmas gift.

Set sometime between s11xe01 and s11xe02, because Tara Lewis is there, but she only just joined the team, and cannon to that point.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 02**

 **DC Combat Labs  
Washington DC**

 **Day 02**

In less than 24 hours they figured out where Derek Morgan had met Sara Peabody.

It was supposed to be JJ's first full martial arts workout since Michael's birth. She was and was not looking forward to it. She was because she liked the strength and confidence that came with this kind of exercise, especially in the field. She didn't because it was bloody early and she was still pumping, drat it. Her boobs were sore. But the Unsubs would not wait, so two sports bras later walked into the locker room and started getting ready.

Two lockers down another woman was also getting ready. A red head with a now familiar face. "Um, excuse me." JJ said.

"Yeah?" She was a little taller than average, with the kind of athletic figure that JJ envied two kids later.

"Dr. Sara Peabody?"

"Yes?" Now JJ had her attention.

"Um, I'm sorry, this is probably inappropriate but..." JJ offered her hand. "JJ Jareau. How was dinner last night?"

As she expected Dr. Peabody recognized the name. She accepted the offered hand with a smile. "The food was great, the company better. Nice to meet you. How's the baby?"

"Slept all night last night. Doting godfather?"

"Very much so. Please, call me Sara."

"Sara? JJ, please."

"JJ then. First day back?"

"Yeah..." They made friendly small talk while they finished getting ready to hit the floor. Sara seemed personable and open, but somehow the talk kept turning back to Michael and Henry, and off her. Only a profiler would notice though. Still, kids could be a safe topic and she never got personal. Once they were ready they went out together. "Hey Morgan." JJ called to the figure down at the water cooler. "Found out where you know Dr. Peabody from."

"Oh?" He looked up and immediately looked abashed.

"It's okay, he said his friends would likely do a background check. Derek Morgan I presume? Sara Peabody."

"Nice to meet you Sara." Morgan also accepted her hand.

"Nice to meet you. I have to go meet my trainer..."

"Sure." Morgan and JJ watched her walk off.

"She seems nice enough." JJ said

"Reid with a girl who works out?" Morgan replied.

"I don't know. Let's get started."

* * *

Twenty minutes later they both realized they were watching Sara work out with her trainer. "Girlfriend's bringing it." Morgan said.

"Yeah, I know. But she doesn't look like she's having fun at all."

"No. But who does at this hour."

Twenty minutes after that they were heading for the ring to spar. Just about the same time Sara was heading over with her trainer. "Looking for a sparring partner?" JJ asked. They were about the same height. Granted Sara had some muscle on her, but not much and she didn't have FBI training.

"Sure." Sara said with a smile.

* * *

Ten minutes after that JJ was blinking up at the ceiling of the gym for the third time. "In my defense I just had a baby." She said.

"Which is perfectly legitimate." Sara said as she offered JJ a hand up. She looked over at Morgan. "Are you just going to stand there?"

Morgan grinned. "You sure you want to do that?"

"Wouldn't ask if I didn't. You know it's not about size."

"All right." Morgan stepped into the ring.

* * *

Ten minutes later it was Morgan's turn to blink at the ceiling. "Ow."

"What?" Sara asked. This time she was bent over at least, her hands on her thighs, trying to catch her breath. "You're good."

"Thanks. Least I'm not going to worry about Reid when he's out with you."

She looked a little too happy at that. "No, you really don't need to."

"Good to know."

* * *

This particular gym also came with an indoor shooting range, one more modern than even the one at Quantico, which was why they both liked it so much. As Morgan and JJ were leaving they happened to look in the window at the range. Sara Peabody was nailing center ring over and over again. "Okay something is up there." Morgan said.

"Yeah. I know." JJ replied. "But there's nothing in her file."

"I know. But girlfriend works a little too hard for it to be nothing at all."

* * *

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

"Your girlfriend is a gym rat." Morgan said as soon as Spencer met him at the coffee pot.

For a half a second Spencer looked caught in the headlights. "She is." He agreed. "I've never gone to watch her work but I know she's takes working out very seriously."

"Which explains those killer abs." JJ said, joining them. "She looks better in a sports bra than I do."

Spencer flushed bright red. "I wouldn't know."

Morgan chuckled. "You need to find out, lover."

Spencer grinned and looked right at Morgan. "Baby steps."

At least that got a laugh.

Later on Penelope pinned Spencer down. "So how was the date last night?"

"It was great. I had a fantastic time."

"What movie did you see?'

" _In the Heart of the Sea_."

"Uhhh, unless you know something I don't that doesn't come out for a few weeks." She caught him, he looked very guilty. "Did you actually go out with a girl last night?"

"No, I did! I did. Morgan and JJ met her at the gym this morning. But we, um, went to Book Club after dinner."

"Book Club?"

"Yeah, that's where we met."

"Are you ever going to tell me what that is?"

"Probably not. Sorry."

"Hey, that's okay. Privacy can be a thing. So, are you really taking her out though or is this just a friend thing?"

"Ahhh, more than a friend thing." Okay, now he was blushing again. "I'm actually taking her to a show at the Renwick Gallery tonight and then to dinner at 1786 over in Georgetown."

"Okay, that is a serious date kind of date. You're not taking Morgan's advice are you?"

"No! No, not yet. But, um, we've been going to Book Club together for a, you know, a few months now and we've gone out really out...this will be the fifth time...you know, would it be too soon to try to kiss her good night?"

"Nooo! No, I totally think you should go for it!" Penelope was grinning. Go Spency go! "But you have to promise me you'll call me and tell me how it goes."

"Promise. I'm leaving a little early so I won't be late."

"You better!"

* * *

.

* * *

Note: Since a number of people have asked about my other stories I decided to put up a second chapter as an excuse to leave a note about it. Yes, I do plan to finish _Percival's Dominatrix_ (at AO3 due to it's MA rating) and _The First Run_. I still have notes on both of them so they can both be finished. But when I hit sticking points on stories I tend to develop what Stephen King delicately called "diarrhea of the word processor" with other stories. This leads to things like the 40,000 words I put into this story since Saturday or the 5,000 I put into it yesterday. (To the exclusion of things like cooking, making Christmas gifts or cleaning my bathroom. It's an obsession I tell you). As soon as I can get my head clear, and I would love to get my head clear, I will go back to my other stories, pull out the notes and finish them, I promise. They will be finished, I'm just not 100% on when and I don't want to give a deadline I can't keep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 03**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

 **Day 03**

"Anyone surprised put up a hand." Rossi said.

No one put up a hand. "What happened?" Tara asked.

"Spence is late and is not answering his phone." JJ replied.

"And this is both...expected and bad?"

"Well it is kind of his turn." Morgan said.

"We attract a lot of crazies." JJ said. "And it always starts with not answering the phone."

"Yeah." Penelope agreed. "Reid with the Angel of Death, Elle with The Fisher King, Hotch with The Grim Reaper, Emily with the Valhalla crew, JJ had that terrorist guy, Morgan with The Prince of Darkness. I don't think mine ever got a name..."

"I have always answered my phone." Rossi said.

"So if I'm ever late..." Tara said.

"Answer your phone." Morgan replied.

"Anyone know his schedule for the past 24 hours?" Hotch asked.

"He had a date last night." Penelope said. "He was taking Sara to the Renwick Gallery and then to 1786 over in Georgetown."

"Georgetown." Tara said. "No Metro over there. Good chance they took a car."

"We'll go." Morgan said. He nodded to JJ and they went.

* * *

 **Corner of 36** **th** **St. and Prospect St. NW  
Washington DC**

"Okay, so according to the security cameras they were at the exhibition last night." JJ said. "They left there and went to the restaurant over there. The staff remembers them. They had dinner and then left without any problems."

"This area is all restaurants and classroom buildings." Morgan said. "At that hour the street would have been busy. And loaded." He looked around. "Where did they park?" He caught sight of a building. "Car Barn? Is that a garage?"

"No." JJ looked at her tablet. "It's a Georgetown University classroom building. But...there is a staff parking lot next to it."

"Down those steps then." There was a very long set of stairs leading down the cliff to the street below. This part of Georgetown was all hills. They headed down. "Why does this look familiar?" Morgan asked.

"These are _The Exorcist_ steps." JJ replied with a smile. "Where the priest died in the movie? Okay, you know Spence would have parked down here just because. And sure enough..." As they went down the steps a familiar vintage Volvo came into view.

As did a crime scene. But not their crime scene. "Hey." JJ called out. "What's going on?"

"Homicide." Will LaMontagine replied. On the other side of the parking lot was a gas station. DC Metro had it taped off. "Someone broke in last night, shot the station attendant."

"Did they rob the place?" Morgan asked.

"No."

"Did they destroy the security cameras?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Spence isn't answering his phone." JJ replied. She pointed to the Volvo, which would have been in clear view of the cameras at the gas station, if they'd had been working.

"You think?" Will asked.

In reply JJ pulled out her phone and speed dialed a number. A dumpster over by the stairs started ringing like an old-fashioned phone. They ran over, Morgan and Will gave a push, and sure enough, behind it was a purse and a very familiar leather bag. And a cell phone. It was Spencer's. Morgan checked the bag and pulled out a revolver.

Will started cursing, slowly and creatively.

"Yeah." His wife agreed completely.

* * *

"So here's what we've got." Penelope said.

She played the video they did have from the gas station feed. Off in the distance they saw Spencer pull into the parking lot. They saw him step around and help Sara from the car. They saw them heading up the stairs to the restaurant, smiling and talking happily. "Date was going well." Morgan said.

Then they saw a black van pulling in, a sleek one that would not look out of place on urban streets. The driver pulled up by the steps. Another man got out and headed up that way. "He's going to find them." Tara said. "They were being followed. They weren't waiting for them here."

A few minutes later the other man came back. The driver got out and went around to the other side of the van. "Why not just talk at the window?" JJ asked.

"Because there's at least one more person in the van." Hotch replied. Just then he got a phone call.

Hotch was correct. They saw the driver reappear in the van window, and then two more men headed for the station. They waited for it to empty out, then went inside, locked the door, and guns came out. And then things proceeded as you would expect for a robbery right up until the cameras switched off. "The station controlled the lights in the lot." Morgan said. "But that's right at a traffic light, if you were heading down the stairs at night you might not notice that the lot was dark until you got to the bottom because of the headlights."

"And then they ambushed them." Tara said. "But if they wanted Reid why take the girl?"

"How do we know this is about Reid?" Rossi countered. "He could be the collateral damage here. Garcia, can you check recordings, see when they picked up their tail?"

"I can try." Penelope started typing. It didn't take long. They saw Spencer walking into the parking garage just down from his building and taking his car out. They watched the traffic patterns around him but didn't see any dark vans. "Okay, next stop 2070 Belmont Road **."**

Sure enough, they saw Sara Peabody waiting outside her building, they saw Spencer very politely get out and walk her to the car, holding the door and everything. And after he pulled away a dark van pulled out and into traffic behind them. "Why not just pick her up there?" Morgan asked. "Quiet, residential street."

"The Park Crest building comes with 24-hour security." Penelope replied. "It's considered one of the most secure in DC. She also has door-to-door car service, paid for by her brother, and...a bodyguard? Whoa."

"Okay, so this is about her, not Spence." JJ said. "But where were the bodyguards last night?"

"She called them off for the night." Penelope said. She'd hacked something or other already, now there was a call sheet up on her screen.

"Of course she did." Rossi said. "Privacy for her date, he is an FBI agent, and she likely thinks her brother is overreacting."

"Maybe not." Morgan replied. "Girlfriend goes to the same gym JJ and I do. She trains as hard as an agent, including in the shooting range. Something is going on there."

Hotch had been listening even as he was on the phone. "We're shorthanded." He said. "I got DC Metro to loan us Will for the duration." JJ nodded her agreement there. "JJ, you and Tara go to Reid's apartment, I want fresh eyes there just in case, and then go ask around at that gym she goes to. Morgan, meet Will and go check out Sara Peabody's apartment and then Georgetown. Rossi and I will go talk to Tom Peabody. Garcia, keep digging."

With that they all set out to find their friend.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 04**

 **Capitol Plaza Apartments  
Unit #24  
Washington DC**

 **Day 03**

"This sucks." JJ said as she let herself and Tara into Spencer's apartment.

"Because we have to run victimology on him?" Tara asked as she stepped in behind her. "Whoa. Hello time warp."

"That and because he tends to be very private." JJ turned to the desk and started looking. "Yeah, he does like living sometime around 1900 if he can help it."

"No kidding." Tara took a turn around the basic layout first. "Studio?"

"Yeah. He wanted something cheap and close to the station. He's paying for his mother's medical care, so..."

"Makes sense. Where does he sleep then?"

"On the couch. He doesn't sleep all that much. Okay, daybook. He must have left it here by mistake; it's usually in his bag."

"He doesn't use his phone?"

"He's kind of a technophobe. God, he has the worst handwriting. I swear, half the time it looks like it was written by a different person. Okay, so Penelope said that he and Sara met at Book Club, which we figured was some kind of grief support group..."

"But Garcia couldn't find any losses in Sara's recent past."

"True, but it could be something that's not an obvious connection. I mean no one would have connected Spence to Maeve...oh damn it Spence!"

"What?"

"He has it in his calendar. Seven to nine-thirty every Wednesday."

"Let me guess."

They said it together. "Book Club."

"It's almost like he has very nosy friends." Tara said with a grin.

"You think." JJ replied. She went back to looking. "Huh. Says here he meets with a Dr. Hartman ever Tuesday from six to seven."

"Isn't that Movie Club night?"

"Yeah, but that's from eight to nine-thirty."

In the meantime Tara had been poking around the couch. "We tend to keep the most personal things by where we sleep." She said. And sure enough, she found a keepsake sort of box under the couch. "Um, letters from Dr. Joseph Bell to Dr. Nettie Stephens?"

"Those must be his letters to Maeve." JJ said. "He said they started out using pen names."

"Huh." Tara flipped through the neat pile of envelopes. "She stopped using hers well before he stopped using his."

"That's weird." Just then their phones rang.

* * *

 **Park Crest Apartments  
Unit #304  
Washington DC**

As predicted Sara Peabody's building had excellent security. But the guards let them in without too much trouble. Morgan looked around as he walked in. "Nice place. Lots of books."

"Something she and Spence have in common." Will started looking around the space. "One bedroom, yeah?"

"Yeah. Looks like kitchen over there."

"Found her desk."

"Found the bedroom." It looked neat as pin but it would be the next stop. "Anything over there?"

"She keeps everything organized. I found her datebook front and center."

"Anything stand out?"

"Not that I can see."

"Reid told Garcia they met at 'book club'. That's on Wednesday night."

"She has 'group' listed, seven to nine-thirty. And a phone number attached." Will dialed it.

 _You have reached the office of Doctor Liz Hartman. I am unable..._

Just then Morgan's phone went off.

* * *

 **Peabody Engineering HQ  
Washington DC**

Hotch and Rossi walked right into a mess. Thankfully it was an FBI mess. "I was just going to call you." The agent-in-charge said.

"What happened?" Hotch asked.

"Tom Peabody is the CEO of Peabody engineering. They work on DOD projects, I don't have the clearance to know what. But someone out there does. Last night his sister Sara was kidnapped. He found a ransom demand in his in-box this morning."

"We know." Hotch replied. "She was on a date with one of my agents when it happened."

"At least we're keeping it in the family."

"Have they offered proof of life yet?" Rossi asked.

The AIC turned a laptop and showed them a picture of what should have been a very pretty blond. But her distress was obvious, her hair mussed, her dress torn, her eyes not quite focused. In front of her was that morning's _New York Times_.

"The kidnappers said they would contact Peabody at 10am."

That was an hour from now. "Get everyone back. We treat this as a kidnapping." Hotch said.

Rossi pulled out his phone. "You know, Reid's collateral."

"I know. But I know he's uniquely valuable in these situation." Hotch replied. "We run the kidnapping playbook and wait to see what he does."

"I should apologize." Hotch said after he and Tom Peabody were introduced. "As I understand your sister was out with my agent last night. He was unable to prevent this from happening."

Tom looked befuddled. "Your agent?"

"From what we can tell they caught him by surprise. He's one of the best. I've trusted him with my life on multiple occasions. I know he'll do whatever it takes to get your sister home."

Tom only looked more confused. "She said they met in group. You let him be an FBI agent?"

"Of course." Now it was Hotch's turn to be confused. "Why wouldn't we?"

Tom studied him a long moment, then shook his head. "Doesn't matter. This is about my work, not her."

"Any information you could provide us could be helpful."

"Look, my sister worked long and hard to get where she is today. This isn't about her and I'm not going to ruin it for her, for any of them. Just get my sister home."

Hotch and Rossi watched Tom walk to the other room. "I hate it when we're missing something." Rossi said.

* * *

An hour later they were waiting to trace and record the call. And the kidnappers were right on time. "Remember." Rossi said. "Keep your voice even and calm and agree with everything he says."

The phone rang right on time

"Remember to repeat anything important he says, to make sure you understand." Rossi said. "And try to keep him talking as long as you can."

They answered the phone. A video link opened. "This is Tom Peabody." Tom said.

A man in a ski mask was on the other side. "Hello Mr. Peabody."

"Are you the man holding my sister?"

In reply the man turned the phone he was holding. Sara Peabody was sitting in a warehouse on a stack of bundles, being held in place by one of the men from the van, whose face was also covered. She looked angry but was very much alive and not very hurt. "Are the FBI there?" The man in the ski mask asked.

"They are."

The camera swooped around. The man moved through another door and put the phone down in front of a man slumped over a table. He reached down and lifted the man's head by the hair. They had worked Spencer over thoroughly, he was already swelling a black eye, his lip was cut, he had a gash on his forehead that was dripping a bit and they could see multiple bruises. But he was breathing, he was alive. Just to be sure everyone knew they opened Spencer's badge and showed it to the camera next to his face. Then the man picked up the phone and moved away. He looked into the camera. "We want the details to Project Starlight. You have one hour to assemble all of the project documentation."

Tom looked panicked. "I don't...I can't..."

"Just to make it clear that we have no problem harming our guests if you do not cooperate..." The man in the mask drew a gun, pointed it somewhere, and fired. In the background they heard a woman scream.

"No! No, don't hurt her!" Tom begged.

"Garcia got a location." Morgan muttered, quietly enough to not be picked up by the call. "They're in the warehouse district."

"If you do not comply in one hou..." In the background they heard something growl. All of a sudden the man's attention was caught by something off camera. "What the..."

The phone went flying.

"Wait! What's going on?" Tom asked.

Rossi shoved him out of the way. The phone was looking at nothing, it was pointed at a stack of some kind of packages. In the background it sounded like a fierce fight going on.

"We need to go." Hotch said.

They piled in, Morgan driving, lights and sirens all the way.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 05**

 **Industrial District  
Washington DC**

 **Day 03**

What they found was not at all what they expected.

There were signs of a fight in the space. Items knocked over, things broken, spatters of blood here and there. There were four Unsubs, three neatly trussed up with zip ties that looked to have come from a package carelessly left by a worker, one unconscious with a visibly broken skull. There was a van, and a phone that still had an open call.

But no Sara Peabody. And no Spencer Reid.

"Is it me or are they missing clothing?" Rossi asked.

It looked like two of the men were missing shirts, one was missing pants, one boots, and while none of them had jackets on only two were found. But they also found a bloodied dress shirt and silk tie, a battered blazer and a torn dress. "Are we saying that another team of Unsubs came in here, subdued these guys, made Reid and Sara change clothes and then took them somewhere else?" Morgan asked.

"That makes no sense." JJ replied. "I can see another set of Unsubs, maybe, but why make them change clothes?"

They looked around at someone who walked up, someone who likely thought he was above their pay grade. He introduced himself as being from the DOD. "We need to know who hired these men, who's after Project Starlight. Any chance your agent would know?"

"Likely." Rossi replied. "We'll let you know when we find him."

* * *

"Our bad guys aren't talking." Morgan said as he returned to the office with Rossi. "Tell me you got something baby girl."

"Not a lot." Garcia replied. "Even with trying to clean up the audio I didn't get much."

She had been recording the open phone line the entire time. They didn't hear much. The Unsub started making his demands, the gun fired, the girl screamed.

A moment later she gave this unearthly growl.

Then the fight got started.

At that angle they couldn't see anything more than a few inches above the floor. And it was angled wrong for catching the fight. "Sometimes you can get things off the edges." Garcia said.

She had something. It wasn't entirely clear but they saw a pair of black and white Converse come and go. Then a pair of delicate, feminine feet shucked off a pair of low heeled pumps and a pair of stockings and pulled on a pair of jeans and high leather boots. A few moments later they heard the distinct growl of a truck engine.

"They left on their own." JJ said. "They fought back, got away and took off."

"That makes no sense." Tara said. "Okay, you're Reid. You're any of you, really. You've been held by an Unsub, you have a victim with you, you're injured, but you manage to fight your way free. What's the first thing you do?"

"Call Garcia." They all said in unison.

Tara spread her hands. "That truck pulled out of here just over an hour ago. Where's the call?"

* * *

In the meantime Tom Peabody showed up with a brace of corporate lawyers around him. "We believe your sister and Agent Reid fought their way free." Hotch started.

But Tom stopped him with a shake of his head. He was pale, his eyes wide. "My sister is not well." He said. "She is not responsible for her actions. This was self-defense. If you even try to say otherwise I will hire every lawyer..."

"We know this was self-defense. We're not accusing either of them." Hotch frowned. "What do you mean she's not well?"

Tom shook his head. "Just find her."

* * *

The best place to start looking was in their lives. No one liked seeing one of their faces up on the board. "Okay, what do they have in common?" JJ asked.

"Book club." Will said. "She had a number listed in her calendar, rang back to a Dr. Liz Hartman."

"Reid has a standing appointment with a Dr. Hartman." Tara replied.

"Is there any indication of Dr. Peabody needing a grief support group?" Hotch asked.

"None." Garcia replied.

"Can you crack into her sealed file?"

"Not legally, no one look... oh, this is sad. Dad died in a racing accident when she was five, Mom re-married at seven at which point she sent both kids off to boarding school."

"Get the old family out of the way to make room for the new one." Rossi nodded.

"At that age?" JJ said. "Henry is that age; I can't imagine sending him away."

"Yes and no. The school wouldn't take kids younger than nine but money goes a long way and she was doing advanced work so they took her anyway. Apparently at this school younger kids were assigned to what they call house dorms, eight kids in one building with a dorm parent."

"Co-ed?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah. Male dorm parent."

"I'm seeing where this is going." Tara said. "Dorm parent was the offender."

"Yeah. But they didn't find out until her last year, when she was twelve. He'd been taking pictures, the sick freak. Apparently he brought someone around to, ew, ew, share..."

"Puberty." Morgan said. "She aged out of his preferential range. But he found someone who wanted her, either for money or favors."

"Yeah, well, she turned around and assaulted both of them. One's in prison in a wheelchair."

"Damn." Tara said.

"After they found the pictures her family and the school called it self-defense and hushed it all up. She transferred to St. Margaret's and the whole thing was sealed at eighteen."

"So maybe adult survivors of child abuse group?" Tara said.

"No. Spence was raised by his Mom." JJ replied. "She is schizophrenic but she adored him. He never gave any indication that she was abusive and they're still really close."

"But he did have a number of unusual traumas to deal with as a child." Rossi said.

"And speaking as a kid with a white mother and a black cop father growing up on the wrong side of Chicago, Las Vegas High is a rough school with a bully problem." Morgan added. "Especially at ten."

"Ten?" Tara asked.

"Yeah." JJ replied. "He went out of state to college six weeks before his thirteenth birthday."

"Okay, not normal childhood. That could still fit."

"But that still doesn't explain this." Rossi replied. "Reid's an agent now. He should have come in, he knows that. It's been two hours, even if he didn't have a phone he's had enough time to get here and come in the door. The only reasons why he wouldn't are if he was under duress..."

"But there's no indication of that." JJ said.

"...or else we have to address the elephant in the room. Tom Peabody did indicate that something wasn't right with his sister."

"Isn't schizophrenia genetic?" Tara asked. "He is still in the window."

"Barely." JJ replied. "It most commonly develops between 15 and 30, he's 34 now. He hasn't shown any symptoms of that though."

"And that is generally contraindicated by any forms of Autism, even high-functioning Asperger's." Rossi said.

"He's never been formally diagnosed with that."

"That's not what Alex Blake told me." Ah, this was interesting news all around. "My point is that we could be dealing with something else." Rossi said. "We've all had problems with stress over the past few years, why not him?"

"He was complaining of headaches a few years back." Morgan said. "And not sleeping."

"Maybe he went to this Doctor Hartman for help." Tara replied.

"We need to find Liz Hartman." Hotch said, rejoining the group. "We're still shorthanded, I arranged for more help. Tara, Will, go find Dr. Hartman and see if you can bring her in for an interview. Dave, Ashley Seaver is between assignments, Andi said we can borrow her for the day, take her to Sara Peabody's apartment and see what you can find. Morgan and JJ get Reid's apartment. Cruz and I will work with the DOD and Tom Peabody to learn what we can about Project Starlight."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 06**

 **Liz Hartman's building  
Washington DC**

 **Day 03**

Tara and Will didn't have any trouble finding Liz Hartman. Or what was left of Liz Hartman. "Looks like they shot her as soon as they got in the door." Tara said.

"Take her out quickly, likely with a silencer, and start looking for what they want." Will agreed. "So what's missing?"

"Tablet." Tara replied, looking at the desk and the chargers there. "Laptop. Maybe both. But why?"

"That is a very good question."

* * *

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

"Okay, I was able to break into cloud storage and recreate what was on her tablet." Garcia said. "Very glad she had bad security and wrote her passwords down."

"Same here." Tara replied. They had found the small booklet in Liz Hartman's desk drawer.

"Okay, I am not seeing anything with any kind of notes or anything. Got a copy of her calendar though."

"Any names?" Will asked

"No. Initials. Not helpful there. Huh."

"Huh what huh?" Tara asked.

"She has a GPS tracking program on her phone. The kind of thing parents can use to track kids cell phones."

"Does she have any children?"

"Not that I know of...whoa. She is tracking, like, thirty people here." Garcia pulled an image up on the screen. It showed a map of the DC area with an overlay of someone's regular route.

"Is that one day?" Will asked.

Garcia called up another DC map. "No. It looks like she keeps each person's GPS record for the maximum amount of time, looks like ninety days." She called up another. And then another.

"Why is she tracking all these people?" Tara asked.

Will shook his head. "That is a really good..."

"Whoa." Garcia said.

They turned to look. She had a new map up. But this one didn't cover the DC area. This one covered the entire _country_. "Someone travels a lot." Will said.

Tara frowned as she studied the map. "Garcia, can you run someone's phone through a clean copy of that program?"

"Yeah, sure." Garcia started typing. "Anyone in particular?"

"Reid?"

"His phone was damaged when they threw it behind the dumpster, I'm still getting stuff off of it."

"Okay. Morgan."

Garcia set to typing, and the program set to working. Within a few minutes it had generated a map of all of the movements of Derek Morgan's phone for the past ninety days. When you zoomed out to look at the whole country the maps were identical. "Now zoom in on any one city." Tara said.

"Okay." Garcia zoomed in and found differences on the local level.

"Same cities, same time, different places. Had to be someone else on the team." Will nodded. "She was tracking Reid's phone."

"But why?" Tara asked.

"That is creepy." Garcia said. "Do you think he knew?"

"I don't know. If she was tracking Reid's what are the chances she was tracking Sara Peabody?"

"How can we tell? She has these listed by number." Garcia said.

"Can you pull the GPS off her phone?"

"Yeah." Garcia did a something and then a something else and came up with a map. Sure enough, it matched one in Liz Hartman's file.

"Why is she tracking them?" Will asked.

"I have no idea." Tara replied. "Can you tell if anyone else accessed this data?"

"You think that might be how the kidnappers found them?" Garcia asked.

"It's a place to start."

* * *

 **Park Crest Apartments  
Unit #304  
Washington DC**

"Her brother said Sara Peabody isn't well, that she's not responsible for her own actions." Dave said. "Look for anything that might identify her illness."

"Whatever it is, do you think Reid has it?" Ashley asked.

"Or he's doing research about it."

"You think he would be dating a test subject?"

"No." That didn't fit. "Let's start with what's wrong with her and go from there."

They started going through the apartment, a more thorough pass than the one Morgan and Will had made earlier. But it wasn't long before they realized something. "There's nothing personal here." Ashley said.

"Be more specific." Dave replied.

"No journals. No family photos. No hobbies. Everything is work related or...or what you would expect to find in a single, professional woman's apartment. I mean look at her closet." Dave came around to look. "Every outfit is pre-packaged, right down to the shoes, earrings and lipstick."

"Looks like they came from the store that way."

"Likely she used a personal shopper service. Give me four new outfits suitable for a college professor in these sizes. But nothing is individual, nothing at all."

"No medication? Art therapy sketchbook? Books on any psychological issues?"

"Nothing. Her toothbrush is here, that's likely the most personal thing."

Dave thought about it a moment. "She lives here. She sleeps here, has breakfast here, comes from work to here. When you're hurt and scared where do you want to go?"

It was an easy answer. "Home." Ashley replied.

"If this was her home she would want to come back here." Dave looked out the window at the street below. "She lives here but this is not her home. But someone else thinks this is." He opened his phone. "Garcia?"

"Speak your nobleness." His phone replied.

"I want you to run a plate for me. Someone is watching this condo."

* * *

 **Capitol Plaza Apartments  
Unit #24  
Washington DC**

"Okay, Reid." Morgan said to the empty room. "Where did you go?"

"Do you really think something isn't...right with Spence?" JJ asked.

"Maybe."

"Could we have missed something that big?"

"We've missed a lot about each other over the years. It's possible."

"Yeah, but this big?"

"Want to tell me about Afghanistan again?"

"Good point." She settled at the desk and started poking through the papers there. "I think this is all work stuff."

"That doesn't surprise me." Morgan was thumbing through the books piled on a table by a reading chair. "I don't even know what we're looking for."

"Me neither." JJ gave up on the actual papers and started poking around the desk. "I thought Spence had a thing for classical music."

"As far as I know. What kind of...vinyl?...does he have over there?"

"Classical. But..."

"But what?"

"He's got a CD player in here." She was looking in one of the drawers in the desk.

"Anything good?"

"If you like country."

Huh?" "Huh?"

"Yeah. Apparently he has a closet love of country music."

"It's always the quiet ones." There was a compartment in the bottom of the reading table that stuck a little. Morgan started trying to wiggle it open.

In the meantime JJ, still shaking her head over the music collection, turned her attention to the closet. She flipped through the rows of interesting suits and collared shirts. "Does he even own a t-shirt?"

"He plays softball in dress slacks and a sport shirt. I'm lucky we can get him out of his tie. What the..." Morgan stared in consternation at what he found.

"What is it?"

"Does Reid smoke?"

"Spence? Never."

"Then explain this." Morgan held up the pipe he found.

"It might just be a prop. Has it ever been used?"

"Yeah. Can't use it often though, the upholstery doesn't smell like smoke at all."

"Reid smokes a pipe. Reid smokes a pipe and listens to country music." JJ shook her head. "Do we even know him?"

"I'm beginning to wonder. Anything in there?"

"No..." But her voice caught like she saw something. "But there is a trunk in here. And it's locked." Morgan moved to join her. "We shouldn't do this."

"It's been a couple of hours. We need to know where he went with the victim." Morgan crouched down and started picking the lock on the plain, wooden trunk. "This thing looks like he travels with it."

"Or it's old." JJ replied. As the lid popped she crouched down beside him. When she saw what was inside she gasped. "A...saddle? Spence listens to country music, smokes a pipe and...rides horses?"

"Check this out." Morgan pulled out a pair of battered riding boots and a pair of jeans that could only fit a very tall, very skinny doctor. "Since when?"

"O. Reid?" JJ read off the inside of the trunk. The lid had different storage slots and a mirror, one you could barely see for the pictures tucked into the frame. She gently pulled one free, one of a very nerdy looking young boy standing next to a weathered old cowboy who looked like he stepped out of a history book. A very tall, very slender weathered old cowboy. "Okay, that's got to be Spence as a kid."

"Junior cowboy?"

"He is from Nevada. I bet that's his grandfather." She pulled another picture loose, same old man, same kid, but this time the boy was up on the back of a horse. "Maybe all this comes from visiting his grandparents." JJ looked at the other, even older, pictures. "I wonder if these are all family."

"I can see it. Maybe he picked up a few habits from the old man."

"And he is very private about his family."

"But how does this help us find him?"

"Well, if you want to learn more about a victim you talk to their family. We know his Mom isn't going to be any help, and he and his Dad barely talk, maybe Grandpa can help."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 07**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

 **Day 03**

"Operation Starlight involves math." Hotch said. "They wouldn't tell us anything about it, but they did admit that both Reid and Dr. Peabody worked on the mathematical basis for it, Dr. Peabody for her brother's company, Reid for the NSA."

"Maybe that's what they initially had in common." JJ said.

"Doubtful. Both were under strict non-disclosure agreements. It's more likely that they never spoke of it."

"But if whoever is after the project data finds out that they both worked on it they'd both be targets. We need to find them."

"Did you find anything at Reid's apartment that might help?"

"Not really. We were thinking of talking to his grandfather; see if maybe he'd contacted him."

"Reid has a grandfather?"

"Most of us do. Despite what Morgan says I doubt he was hatched in a lab somewhere." They shared a smile over that. "O. Reid is all we know, I was going to get Garcia on it."

"All right. It's worth a try."

Next up it was Tara. "We found something...else on Liz Hartman's cloud drive. She was recording her meetings with her patients."

"Including Reid?" Hotch asked.

Tara hesitated but nodded. "We haven't listened to more than the first couple of minutes but he had a problem and was going to her for treatment, not research."

"Damn." Morgan said. "I think we were all hoping there."

"Whatever is on there is really personal." JJ said. "Who do you want to listen to it?"

"Tara, sit with Garcia and listen. You're the psychologist and she runs a support group." Hotch replied.

Tara nodded. "All right. Only what's pertinent to the case."

"I trust your judgment." While she went off to do that he turned to Morgan and JJ. "Work with Kevin to track down Reid's family, at least the ones we don't know. Also try Dr. Norman out at Bennington, in case he contacted his mother."

"All right." Morgan replied.

After that Dave and Ashley returned. "We have a team on the team watching the condo." He said. "Although the way this case is going they'll have a team on them next."

"Any luck with the brother?"

"Between the lawyers and the Xanax, no. She has to have another location somewhere. My guess is that wherever that is they're either there or heading there."

"Hopefully whoever is after that data doesn't know where that is."

"We looked over that map Liz Hartman collected. In the past ninety days she only ever spent the night in the Park Crest condo. But there has to be something somewhere. I'll ask Kevin to run down any real estate holdings under her brother's company, we might find something there."

"She hasn't been there in the past three months, why would she go there now?"

"Stress. She feels safer there. Reid would want to get a woman he cares about to safety."

"Which should be this office." Hotch replied.

"I know."

* * *

"This feels so wrong." Garcia said.

Tara sighed. "In a way it is. He expected this to be private. But we need to find him before whoever is after that data does, and right now this is the only lead we have."

"So where do we start?"

"Start at the beginning. When was it dated?"

"January 26th, 2013."

"Is that date significant at all?"

"Ummm...it's only a couple of weeks after Maeve Donovan died."

"So that was the trigger for whatever this is."

"Makes sense. I mean, that's a big, powerful thing."

"Yeah it is. Is this video or just audio?"

"Video."

"Okay, go."

It was set in an office, quiet, professional, cozy, safe. There was a fireplace going behind him, warding off any chill in the room. Spencer was bundled up in an old cardigan. He looked kind of disheveled still, and upset about something. _"All right, Dr. Reid..."_

" _You can call me Spencer."_ He said.

" _Spencer. Let's start with the basics. How old are you?"_

They watched as Spencer went over the basics. His age, his education, his IQ and special abilities, a little about the work they did. Then they started talking about his family. _"Paranoid schizophrenia?"_ Dr. Hartman asked.

" _Yes, but I don't think that's what this is."_ Spencer replied. _"I'm not showing any of the first line symptoms."_

" _Are you sure?"_

She went down the list of symptoms, but he said no to each of them. _"Okay, so what symptoms are you showing?"_

" _I'm..."_ Whatever it was it was hard to answer. _"I'm losing time."_

" _Losing time?"_

" _I have an eidetic memory. I remember one hundred percent of what I read, eighty percent of what I see and seventy-five percent of what I hear. I've been tested by the Justice Department, my memory is certified as fact for the purposes of evidence. I remember everything. Except...I don't."_

" _You don't?"_

" _No. I can tell you word for word every lecture I ever heard from every teacher back to the first grade. I can recite every book I ever read. But...there have been major events in my life I...missed. I don't remember years of summer vacations, they're just gone. There was an incident with my family..."_

" _An incident?"_

" _When I was seven. I had to retrieve those memories under hypnosis. I remember everything but I didn't remember that."_

" _This happened when you were younger, why is it upsetting you now?"_

" _Because about ten years ago it started happening again."_ He was growing more agitated, now there was genuine fear in his voice. " _And it keeps getting worse. I don't remember most of the past two weeks. I don't know where I went or what I did...it's just gone."_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 08**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

 **Day 03**

"Can you do that?" Garcia asked. "Can you just not...make a memory? Can Spencer do that? Oh, he sounds so scared."

"Hang on." Tara said.

In the meantime the recording continued. _"That's why you came to me?"_ Dr. Hartman asked.

" _All of the people I've ever met with this have been...killers."_ Spencer replied, clearly afraid. _"I just don't..."_

" _You are in a unique field, Spencer. You know many more murders than the rest of the population. That tends to skew the average. I can tell you that I see thirty patients and only one of them has ever reacted violently to anything and that was a clear case of self-defense."_

" _So you doubt I'm...I'm..."_

" _I doubt you harmed anyone during the times you can't remember. But just to be clear let's go over the symptoms. Headaches?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Stomach pains?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Insomnia?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Anxiety?"_

" _Yes."_

" _Depression?"_

" _Sometimes."_

" _Drug or alcohol abuse?"_

" _Yes, but I've been clean for eight years now."_

" _Good, that's good. We already discussed amnesia and time loss."_

" _Yes."_

" _Ever feel like you're a passenger in your body? Like someone else is running the show?"_

" _Yes. Sometimes at work. No more than five or ten minutes at a time, mostly. Anymore, there was a time when it was more but...with the work I do..."_

" _That's not good."_

" _I haven't had a complete loss like this, for more than a minute or two, since before college. I chalked it up to stress..."_

" _Which is likely what's bringing this out now."_

" _I know. I need to...to resolve this or else..."_

" _Spencer...you know this can be treated, it can go into remission but there is no cure."_

He took a deep breath. _"I know. But if I can get some control over it, keep it from degrading any further I might be able to at least keep working. That's all I want."_

" _You should have a better quality of life than that."_

" _That would be nice."_ He managed to look hopeful. _"Can you help me?"_

" _I can certainly try. Okay, when did it first manifest in recent memory, you said ten years ago?"_

" _Yes, the Phillip Dowd case."_

Tara stopped the recording. "Okay, before he gets into it I need to see that case file."

Garcia nodded. "That I can do."

* * *

"Okay, O. Reid." JJ said. "Somehow related to Spencer."

"Think grandfather." Morgan said.

"O. Reid. O. Reid. Here we go." Kevin said. "Orville William Reid. Born May 2nd, 1921...oh...died August 30th, 2008. A stroke at 87."

"Aww." JJ said. "Wasn't that the summer where Hotch was out with his ear?"

"Yeah." Morgan replied. "I remember Reid took a few weeks off then. Might have gone back for the funeral."

"That would explain why he had that trunk. Part of his inheritance."

"Any other family?" Morgan asked.

"His wife Betty died of cancer in 1983. He has two children, William and Ethel, William has a wife and...right, Reid's father there. Ethel and her husband Bob Trask don't have any children. This is interesting, looks like it was Sheriff Orville Reid, he was the sheriff of Storey County, Nevada for thirty-five years."

"Is that around Vegas?" Morgan asked.

"No. closer to Reno and the capitol at Carson City. The county seat there is Virginia City, it's a living history site, one giant preserved old western mining town turned into a museum. Three hundred people living in a place that hasn't changed in a hundred and fifty years."

"Middle of nowhere." Morgan said.

"That explains turning cowboy to go visit." JJ replied. "He literally went back to the old west. Unfortunately that was our only lead. William won't be any help. What about Aunt Ethel?"

"She still lives in Virginia City." Kevin replied. "Looks like she's the local historian."

"Spencer never talks about her though." JJ said. "I think this is a dead end."

* * *

By the time they were done Tara had spread data all over the conference room boards. She and Garcia stepped back and took a long look. "Jinkies." Garcia said.

"Thankfully there's a pattern." Tara said. "What we're looking at here is a stress reaction. It usually starts in childhood when a child is presented with a repetitive, ongoing source of stress that they find emotionally overwhelming."

"So they just...snap?"

"It's more like they get to the point where their minds have to hit the reset button so they _don't_ snap. They detach from the world around them and find sanctity in their own minds. However they still have to interact with the world so they...create a new personality to do so. One that's just not them."

"Yeah, but...isn't that kind of trauma associated with...sexual abuse?" Garcia practically whispered the last.

"Commonly yes, but it can also be associated with severe emotional neglect and trauma. According to his interview he first remembered a fugue state..."

"A what?"

"A time he couldn't remember, when he was seven, around the Gary Michael's case. He had to retrieve the memory that set this all off under hypnosis."

"Yeah, but Gary Michaels didn't get close to him."

"Gary Michaels started out as a flasher, we still aren't certain that wasn't an issue. Start there, can't tell Mon or Dad because Mom is unstable and Dad might be an issue. Then knowing that his best friend was killed, seeing Dad burning bloody clothes in the back yard, Mom having a psychotic break, Dad caring for her and living with his own fear, they moved right then, he said his dad started drinking, which is not an uncommon way to cope..."

"Yeah, that is a lot all right on top of one another."

"People expect that highly intelligent children will also be extremely emotionally mature. It's usually the opposite case. So you're a scared, confused child who can't express his emotions because no one around you supports you or has the capability to empathize with you and they all expect you to be in complete control and know everything already. Eventually it's all just too much."

"So _you_ go away and...someone else comes around to let all that out."

"Yep. He lost that whole summer. He didn't come back until he went back to school, to an academic environment where Spencer felt safe. But what triggered him to lose subsequent summers?"

"Does it matter?" Garcia asked

"I don't know yet." Tara said. "What I do know is that later he appears to have manifest a third, minor personality variant as a result of new stress. That looks to be the one that comes out at work."

"Minor variant?"

"Current research has shown that there are two forms to this. The classic version which comes with complete amnesia, and a minor variant in which memories are made but they tend to be fuzzy and distant. It feels like someone else is controlling your body, but you're still aware of what's going on. It looks like he kicks over when he becomes emotionally overwhelmed but he still needs to function. That's the one he calls Joseph. Which is actually..." Tara laughed a little. "Remarkable."

"What was the new stress?"

"His dad abandoning the family, and his mom having another break as a result."

"It always sounded like he handled it all right."

"By developing and deploying Joseph. You've been around kids that age, yeah?"

"Henry, my godson, he's eight. You said really intelligent kids can be emotionally younger, so about that?"

"Yeah, about that. When did you learn to balance a checkbook? To pay bills on time? To do your own cooking and grocery shopping? To get to medical appointments and handle doctors instructions? To take medication?"

"Easy. High school. My Mom wanted me ready for college."

"Can you imagine asking Henry to do all that? To make sure the bills got paid, to handle all the household chores, to get JJ to the doctor and make her follow instructions including properly dosing some pretty powerful medications, and to do it all without asking for help because if anyone finds out he's in foster care and JJ is locked in an institution and without any prior instructions. Just wake up one morning and find a note saying he's in charge."

"Jinkies no! Henry is just a kid! Even Jack, Hotch's son, is way too young for all that."

"So was Spencer. But that's what his dad did to him. That morning was when he first manifested Joseph, to help him cope."

"How?"

"Because Joseph is based on Dr. Joseph Bell, the real-life version of Sherlock Holmes."

Garcia digested this, and a grin started to form. "Oh my god, go little Spency!"

"I know, right? I can just picture this little kid in this suburban kitchen looking around, freaking out, getting control over himself and saying 'All right Watson, let us observe and deduce.'" Tara grinned. "If it wasn't so awful it would be completely adorable."

"Yeah it would!"

"According to the timeline Spencer and Dr. Hartman worked out he manifested Joseph off and on from when his dad left at ten to when he went off to CalTech at thirteen. During that time he only completely lost those summers, even when Joseph was in charge Spencer was at least recording memories. When he went off to college some family members finally figured out what was going on and stepped in to help him. And that was it for the next ten years."

"So he didn't think it was a problem by the time he joined the FBI?"

"No. If he was my patient I would have assumed he grew out of it. Maturity plus the end of the abuse, it can happen."

"But it came back."

"One of the ways you can tell that someone is manifesting is that they show an entirely different skill set. They know how to do different tasks, they speak different languages, they have different hobbies. In 2005 Spencer failed his handgun qualification but two days later he nailed a head shot at an unlikely angle while under duress. And he has no memory of actually doing so. I suspect one of his personalities is a sharpshooter."

"Personalities?" Someone asked from behind them.

Tara and Garcia turned to find JJ, Morgan and Dave looking in. "Yeah." Tara said. "I know you're not going to want to hear this..."

"Lay it on us." Dave said.

"Reid has DID. Also known as Multiple Personality Disorder."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 09**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

 **Day 03**

Tara and Garcia caught the rest of the team up. "How could we have missed this?" Morgan asked.

"Because we thought he was just being a genius." JJ said. "I mean, we've seen this. How many times have we been in...for lack of a better term a 'boss fight' with an Unsub. Total crisis, the clock is ticking, the Unsub is getting out ahead of us, we're all starting to freak out and all of a sudden Spence goes...still. And it's like he kicks on the after burners in that brain of his and the case just opens up in front of him. It's because Sherlock Holmes has just joined the team, right under our noses."

"I'm going to start calling him that." Morgan said. "It does explain the Dowd headshot."

"And how he was able to send us messages while Hankle was torturing him." Hotch said. "And how he was able to talk down Chester Hardwick. He even said he does his best work at times of extreme terror. And I missed it."

"It explains those mood swings he was having when we were investigating the Gary Michaels case out in Vegas." Dave said. "I did wonder why we needed hypnosis when he has that memory."

"I think his condition started to degrade after the Hankle case but he was able to get a hold of it. It started degrading a second time after he was shot by Patrick Meyers." Tara said. Hotch started chuckling. "What?"

"He forged the paperwork saying he was cleared to return to the field after that." Hotch said. "He signed the paperwork 'Dr. Joseph Bell'. When I figured out who that was I thought it was the worst forgery job ever." They all had a laugh over that one.

"But not long after that we had the Foyette case." Morgan said. "And then JJ left and then Emily, this team went through a lot over a few years."

"That was when he really started going downhill." Tara said. "Headaches, digestive issues, depression, anxiety, insomnia..."

"He said he was having problems with headaches." Morgan said.

"And he was having tummy troubles." Garcia added

"And he never sleeps." JJ replied.

"He said he was in denial and looking for medical help." Tara said, tracking her notes around the room. "That was how he met Maeve Donovan."

"A relationship like that can do a lot to counterbalance stress." Dave said.

"Until she died in front of him." JJ replied.

"That was the key incident." Tara said. "We're looking at three different personalities here, Spencer, Joseph Bell and...John Doe, we don't have the name of the third one. John Doe manifested between roughly seven and sixteen, from the time of Gary Michael's murder until he completed his first PhD, usually over the summer. Joseph manifest from ten to thirteen, when he went off to college. Joseph came back to help manage work stress from 2006 to 2013, but very infrequently. Losing Maeve Donovan likely triggered the return of John Doe."

"Most victims manifest one or both of two kinds of personalities." Dave said. "One to pretend that everything is normal, to cope with the everyday, and one to cope with strong emotions. Have any of us ever known Spencer Reid to be all that emotional?"

"When people die. Emily. Maeve." JJ said. "It's..." She sagged. "It's like he becomes a different person for a while. So maybe this is about grief?"

"Tangentially. " Tara replied. "After Maeve Donovan's death he experienced a dissociative fugue that lasted approximately two weeks. He has no memory of that time, his largest break since the summer he was fifteen."

"He spent it in his apartment." Garcia said.

"We hope he spent it in his apartment." JJ replied. "We should have gone in to check on him."

"That's what triggered him to get help?" Hotch asked.

"It terrified him." Tara replied. "He finally had to face he problem head on so he got help. And treatment was working for him."

"I thought this couldn't be cured." Morgan said.

"Technically no, there's always the possibility of manifesting again at times of extreme stress. But from what I could tell he was in remission. Even though he went through some pretty stressful events once he had therapeutic support he didn't manifest."

"He handled Gideon's death well." Dave said.

"Yeah, and getting shot in the neck." Garcia replied.

"And Blake moving to Boston." JJ added. "How come he never said anything?"

"He was afraid of losing his job." Tara said.

They all looked at Hotch for that one. "I've had better cause to fire him." Hotch replied. "If I fired everyone on this team who ever reacted badly to extreme stress I'd have fired two- thirds of it by now. Including myself."

"So how does this help us find him?" JJ said. "We theorized that the kidnappers found out that Dr. Hartman was tracking her patients..."

"Likely so they could backtrack If they ever lost time and didn't know where they went." Dave said.

"...but we sent people to every location on their maps and there's been no sign of them." JJ finished.

"Garcia, replay the video from the kidnappers." Hotch said. Garcia typed and it started playing on the screen. They watched in silence.

"Okay, I'm Spencer." Morgan said when it was over. "I know these guys are after Project Starlight, whatever that is. I know I was involved but I don't know my girl was involved."

"So he thinks she's collateral damage here." JJ said.

"I'm in one room, she's in another. I'm likely already having trouble coping with the stress, now I hear a gunshot. Bang." Morgan looked around. "What just happened?"

"They shot her." Dave said. "Just like Maeve."

"There's your trigger." Tara said. "Grief, shock, it all brings out John Doe."

"But what about Sara Peabody? She has to have some say in this."

"She is also dealing with DID, although in a much more traditional form. I skimmed over the summaries for her sessions and it looks like she also manifests two personalities. They were primarily concerned with getting control over one they call Ellen, who is very protective, to the point of being violent."

"That's the one that came out when she was twelve." JJ said.

Tara nodded. "Throughout high school and into college Sara lost two to three hours a day, some of that to Ellen trying to get her to work out, to become stronger so she could protect herself."

"That's what she was doing at the gym." Morgan said. "If Sara did that sort of thing deliberately then Ellen wouldn't have to take over and force her to do it."

"Exactly. Between that and her brother keeping her in safe places and surrounded by body guards she hadn't heard from Ellen in years."

"Play the video again." Hotch said. They watched quietly. "She wasn't in a position to see Reid when that gun went off."

"Same thing then." Morgan said. "She knows she was involved with Project Starlight, she thinks Reid is the collateral, and out comes Ellen to fight for her man. So you think Ellen is in the driver's seat here?"

"Unlikely." Tara replied. "Apparently Ellen only has a brief lifespan. As soon as the immediate danger is over she goes away. Likely she switched over to Caroline, her emotional alter. Caroline Fair, daughter of James Graham Fair, one of the Comstock Kings, born in 1888 in the family's hometown. According to her she never knew her mother who was one of her father's many mistresses and her father was always away on business. She was raised by her grandmother."

"It's easier to accept parents who aren't present than ones who are abusive." Dave said.

Tara nodded. "...and she ended up somehow slipping through time and landing in a boarding school where everyone was cruel to her. She was a lost, lonely little girl. But as Caroline she could express her feelings and hope for a rescue from powerful father, instead of being pushed away by a cold, dismissive, neglectful mother. The problem is that she's still splitting between Sara and Caroline, she's nowhere near stable."

"I bet she's really lonely." Garcia said. "If she's splitting up like that."

"Wait. Comstock kings?" JJ asked.

"Yes." Tara replied. "The Peabody family is originally from northern Nevada, they made their fortune in silver mining. She's mentally translating some family history."

"Northern Nevada. Like Virginia City?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Spencer's grandfather was the sheriff out there for decades."

Dave looked over. "JJ, picture this. You're in trouble. Will is sick, he needs round-the-clock care all of a sudden. You need to move, you still have work, there's another crisis going on, and it's summertime. What do you do?"

"Easy. Send the kids to my mom's house for a while." JJ nodded. "The summer after Gary Michaels. William could have sent Spencer to spend the summer with Grandpa while he took care of Diana. Which makes me wonder if he and Sara Peabody crossed paths as children."

"Spencer has no memory of that summer." Tara said. "Or any summer after that until he started working on his first PhD. He stayed at CalTech that year. But back on point, Caroline is a woman of her time, she'd follow her man, not lead him. John Doe is in the driver's seat here, we need to profile him to see where he would take her."

"And the answers to both lives are in Virginia City." Dave said.

"You and JJ." Hotch said. "Take the plane and go see what you can find."


	10. Chapter 10

_**Part 2**_

 _One of the characteristics of North American culture is that you can always start again. You can always move forward, cross a border of a state or a city or a county, and move West, most of the time West. You leave behind guilt, past traditions, memories._

 _\- Isabel Allende_

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

 **Sheriff's Office  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 04**

"Oh my god." JJ said as they got out of the car.

They slowly turned and looked at the town around them. It was perched on the side of a steep hill, the streets carved into the sides. Some of them were still cobblestoned, and all of them still had the original raised wooden sidewalks. "I did what Reid would do and looked this place up on the plane." Dave said.  
Apparently there was a fire in 1875, after which they rebuilt the town. And it hasn't changed since. The air up here is so thin and dry it's preserving the town whole."

"I believe that. Wow." The sagging brick and wood buildings lining the streets were just amazing. "The Bucket of Blood Saloon. Seriously. And..." She gawped as a couple of historic cowboys. They nodded to two women in bustle dresses carrying parasols. "Is..."

"It's all one big museum, something like Colonial Williamsburg, only western. Those are docents and reenactors." Dave politely nodded to the parasol ladies walking by. "Can you imagine being a kid and having free run of this place?"

"Oh god yes. First chance we get Uncle Spencer is coming out here on vacation with us. I know a little boy who would have a blast here."

The Sheriff's department was in one of the old buildings, with a front that was sagging slightly and carved wooden signs. But once inside it was as modern and efficient as every other local office they had ever visited. While Dave politely informed the locals of their errand JJ looked at the award display case they had in the lobby. She was just glancing it over when something caught her eye. "Excuse me." She said to one of the deputies there. She introduced herself then pointed to a small plaque in the case. "Can I see that one please?" The deputy agreed, and went to fetch the key.

"What is it?" Dave asked as he joined her.

"Remember how Tara said that different personalities will exhibit different skill sets?"

"Yeah."

"The Spencer Reid I know can't shoot his way out of a paper bag. He always has to try two or three times to pass his qualifications."

"So?'

"So..." By now the deputy had returned and pulled the plaque out for them to see. According to the engraving one Spencer Reid had won the Northern Nevada Junior Cowboy Sharpshooters competition in 1989, 1990, 1994, 1995, and 1996. They both stared at it a long moment.

"Is that handgun or long gun?" Dave asked.

"Both. That's Sheriff Orville's grandson. He was real proud of that boy. Heard he went FBI, come to think of it."

"We'll have to look him up."

"He competed in junior rodeo around here too. Beat me a few times." The deputy smiled. "Those were good times."

"Junior rodeo?" JJ asked.

"Yep. Barrel racing and pole bending as I recall. I don't think he did any of the stock work though."

"Right."

"Interesting." Dave said. "Which way is the museum again?"

"We have a few of them, but, you're here to speak to Mrs. Trask?"

"Yes, we are."

"She's walking by."

* * *

 **Virginia City Historical Society  
Virginia City, NV**

"Spencer comes out a couple of times a year, usually only for a few days." Ethel Trask said. She was a tall, rangy woman, all fine bones and angles. Genetics were a thing there. "We had dinner when I went back to DC for conventions a few times, and he calls on holidays, but we're not really close. I haven't heard from him in months."

"Spencer used to come out here for summer vacations?"

"Oh yes. It started when he was seven, something happened at home, Will never said what, and he asked Dad to look after Spencer for the summer. Oh he was so adorable back then."

"How so?" Dave asked.

"He came out and insisted his name was Charlie. Charlie Sharon, son of William Sharon, one of the great Comstock Kings that built this town, and his actress mistress. Personally I thought he was too young to know about such things, you understand, but Diana let him read whatever he wanted. I figured he was just playing pretend but he stuck with it every summer when he came out. I remember asking him every summer what a boy from the 1880's was doing in the 1980's. At first he'd look at me all sacred and say he didn't know, but later on he said he didn't know but he was making the best of it."

"And nobody ever worried about that?" JJ asked.

"Just the opposite, Dad indulged him. Called him Charlie all summer, said old man Sharon hired him to make sure his boy grew up to be a fine western gentleman. Those two would run thick as thieves all the time, Dad taught him to ride and shoot and play poker. Even taught him to drive and shave when it came around to it. But that was after Will ran off. Dad was so upset when he found out. If we'd have known we would have found a way to get Diana some help but she would never say anything and Spencer was too scared. He was afraid they'd send her off to the state asylum."

"But that didn't happen?"

"No. Dad arraigned for her to have in-home care while Spencer was off at college, until a bed opened up at Bennington. That was when he started coming back to visit over the summers. It was better for her to have the consistency of him being away."

"Did he still insist on being called Charlie?"

"Not then. Seemed he grew out of it by then. Oh I know it was silly but it seemed good for him. Whenever I went to visit them in Vegas he was such a quiet boy, always with his nose in a book or spouting off facts, always inside helping his mother. He'd never go out and play, it seemed like he didn't have any friends, likely because he was so far ahead of the other boys his age but I remember that the few times I tried to shoo him out Diana became very upset. But when he came here it was like night and day. He'd go running off with the other kids, riding out into the hills, Dad got him involved with 4H, junior rodeo, Boy Scouts, reenactments, anything you could think of to get his mind off home. After we learned about Will and Diana's marriage breaking up I figured he needed this, you know, time to enjoy being a child."

"The joy of childhood." Dave nodded. "Pretty strong, emotional stuff. Especially when you have to be so mature and responsible at home."

"That it is. I'm glad we could give that to him. Dad was always so proud of his grandson. I just wish I could help you know. I hope he's all right."

"I think he will be. But there is something you can do to help us."

"Anything."

"Tell us everything you know about William Sharon and James Fair."

* * *

 **Peabody House  
Incline Village, NV**

Garcia had been looking in to the Peabody family real estate holdings. As it turned out they had a house only about thirty minutes from Virginia City, off in a resort area in the mountains. The sort of house that came with a full- time caretaker on the property. "Did the Peabody family come out when Sara and Thomas were children?" JJ asked.

"Oh yeah. They'd come out every winter break to ski with the family. Well Thomas would, Sara was always a little too small for real skiing." The caretaker replied.

"Only in winter?"

"Yeah, this is pretty much skiing territory. It gets too hot and dry in the summer unless you're in to finishing on the lake, which was not their thing."

"Did the family spend time over in Virginia City?"

"Mrs. Peabody did. That was Daniel's mother, Thomas and Sara's grandmother. She used to take Sara there all the time. They do the whole Victorian Christmas thing, sleighing, caroling, riding horses, all that. Mrs. Peabody used to love getting that little girl away from her mother. Heck, the last few years she just rented a house over there. Said she was too old to ski and Sara too young so they might as well not get in anyone's way."

"Did Sara ever play pretend games, like she was someone else?"

"Oh yeah, like she was a little thing out of a story book. Mrs. Peabody called her Miss Caroline, said that should have been her name, after her grandmother."

"Why did she want to get her away from her mother?" Dave asked.

The caretaker shifted around a little, like it was an uncomfortable subject. "That woman never took care of Sara right. She was too harsh with her, always snapping at her if she said anything or tried to move or play at all. She made it clear she never wanted a second baby, Thomas fulfilled her obligation to the marriage and Sara was an accident, a mistake. You could tell when it was just Mom around, that little girl was so quiet, looking after herself, too grown up for her years. But as soon as Mrs. Peabody came in she'd ask where Miss Caroline was and it was like throwing a switch, all of a sudden she was a little girl again. Is she all right?"

"We believe so." Dave said.

They wrapped up the interview and headed back toward Reno.

* * *

.

* * *

Note: Virginia City actually exists. Granted it's more tourist trap than living history museum but it really is a preserved mining town from the 1870's and it really is on the National Historic Register. There is a lot of history hiding behind those overpriced t-shirts. If you're ever in the Reno/Lake Tahoe area I highly recommend a visit.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 **Interstate 580 northbound  
Outside Carson City, NV.**

 **Day 04**

So what are you thinking?" JJ asked

"Know what the first thing William Reid ever said to me was?" Dave asked. It was a rhetorical question. "He said that Spencer didn't look like him anymore. Not how are you or how's your mother or why are you here. You don't look like me anymore."

"Narcissistic much?" JJ asked.

"Just a bit. Later in the conversation he mentioned how nothing in Spencer's mind surprised him anymore. He sounded remarkably bitter when he said that, like he resented his son's brilliance, like it personally annoyed him. If you were really resentful of Henry, of the time and attention he took up in your life, when would he be the most annoying?"

JJ thought about it for a mile or so. "When he's playing." She finally replied. "When he's really enjoying himself. I have to tell him to use his inside voice every five minutes; he's always knocking things over, making a mess. For a narcissist with a sick wife he has to care for, one who might be set off by loud noises it would have driven him crazy. His weirdo son wanting attention all the time."

"Or one who's marriage to a cash cow was failing and who's bright daughter was a reminder that a pregnancy can't buy a marriage. They would want them as quiet as possible, as out of sight and out of hearing range and out of the way as much as possible."

"They didn't let them _play_." JJ said. "That's horrible for a child's psychological state. They would have shut down emotionally, acted well beyond their years, social anxiety..."

"You've known Spencer longer than I have." Dave replied. "He joined the Bureau fairly young as I recall. What was he like when you first met him?"

JJ thought a long moment. "Damn." She finally said.

Dave nodded. "That explains the split. It was set off by the shock around the Gary Michaels case but his father's attitude strengthened it. It would be too painful for Charlie to think about what was happening to Spencer back home, and too painful for Spencer to remember the fun and friends he had as Charlie. So he was Spencer in Vegas and Charlie up here."

"But why Charlie and Caroline?"

"Because when they were with their grandparents they were finally free to feel those emotions they had bottled up for so long. But not only joy and play, also anger and frustration at their parents for what they were doing to them and confusion about why."

"But kids can't be angry at their parents. Children are hard wired to love even the most heinous of abusers, because biologically those are supposed to be their protectors."

"So instead two very intelligent minds chose figured from the history of the one place where they felt safe and loved that most resembled them, and became _their_ children. William Sharon abandoned his family when his mistress, Sarah Hill, started showing signs of schizophrenia. Theresa Fair left her husband due to serial adultery, which likely made her bitter and mean. Spencer and Sarah couldn't be angry with William Reid and Linda Peabody, but they could sure be mad at William Sharon and Theresa Rooney Fair. And indulgent grandparents didn't see their grandchildren's behavior as delusional. They saw it as playful and encouraged it until they both had full-fledged cases of DID going." Dave sighed. "And then they met in a support group and established a full on case of folie simultanée."

"Folie simultanée?" JJ asked.

"When two people with similar delusions influence and reinforce each other. It's a rare variant of folie à deux. With folie à deux two people meet and then become delusional simultaneously, with folie simultanée two people start out with independent delusions that at similar and end up reinforcing each other. Although they could have been helping each other, we'd have to see the notes for that. Anyway it's a fine hair to split. Moving forward the goal for each of them will be to find the authentic person in the middle of all three personalities. In Spencer's case that's part Spencer Reid, part Joseph Bell and part Charlie Sharon."

"One who loves to observe carefully, spout facts and ride horses." JJ smiled.

"Exactly. And likely the same thing with Sarah Peabody and Caroline Fair. The only difference there is that her defensive personality might be dangerous and would require more intensive treatment. But that also explains why he's not Spencer right now."

"Does it?"

"Charlie and Caroline don't usually come out for strong negative emotions."

"They come out for strong positive ones." JJ nodded. "Of course, they each would have been so happy to find out that the other wasn't shot."

"Odds are Ellen switched to Caroline once the threat was over. So what would Caroline Fair and Charlie Sharon do next, that's who we have to..." Dave suddenly dialed the speaker phone.

"Hotchner." Hotch answered.

"Do we know if Reid cleaned out the Unsub's wallets as well as taking a vehicle?"

"No." Hotch replied. "Assume he did."

"Good news and bad news."

"Bad news."

"Reid is somewhere in the lower 48. If he cleaned out their wallets he has gas money."

Hotch sighed. "Good news?"

"I know where he's going."

* * *

 **Virginia City, NV**

While the one person who could have calculated the missing couple's arrival time to the minute was, well, missing, the team could estimate that with switching off driving and going as long as possible it would still take a minimum of two and a half days to get from DC to Virginia City. Which meant tomorrow, which meant ample time to put JJ on a commercial flight back to DC so she could be with Henry and Michael, and for Morgan and Tara to come out on the next westward flight in the morning. Unfortunately this left Dave Rossi without a partner, but he really didn't need one.

His first stop was back at the museum. "Just a few more questions, did Spencer inherit anything from his Grandfather?"

"Of course." Ethel Trask replied. "He got the property. The house and its contents. Dad changed his will once Spencer joined the FBI, before then he was supposed to get the life insurance so he'd have more money for college, but after he changed it around. He said that Spencer would look after the house as well as we would and that he wanted him to have a place to come home to if it didn't work out back east. And after we cared for him all those years, well, you understand."

"Of course." Ethel's father likely wanted to pay back her expenses, to make sure her retirement was still sound. But you couldn't say that sort of thing politely. "Which house is that?"

"The Prescott House, over on Hinkey. It's on the National Historic Register. I was so glad Spencer decided not to sell it, I was terrified it would go to someone who would gut it to make a bed and breakfast, Dad kept it all original, except for the kitchen appliances, wiring and plumbing. It even still has the original picket fence, all from 1864."

Just the sort of place someone who believed they were born a hundred years ago would find comfortable. Just the sort of place he'd bring his frightened, equally out of time girlfriend, to a familiar sort of home and a town where he knew they were safe. "Is anyone looking after the house for him?"


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 04**

Sure enough, Spencer had a housekeeper checking on the house monthly. "I just dust the place up." Marge said. "Keep an eye on the plumbing, make sure no mice are moving in, that sort of thing." She said as she escorted Dave and a sheriff's deputy up the stairs.

"That's the best thing, when an older home has to stay empty most of the year...whoa." The house was a two story Victorian cottage, with what looked like real redwood siding and stained glass that had the ripples of age. But it was the view out over the foothills and down to the desert that caught his eye.

Deputy Johnson looked that way and nodded. "We call it a hundred mile view up here." He said. "It's the clean, thin air that does it. On this side of town it's particularly good, I bet he can see the lights of Reno from here."

"I bet you're right." He followed Marge into the house. The front parlor was decorated in western and old. There was one empty space in the room, one place where something was obviously missing. "Was there a couch here?"

"Yep. Dr. Reid had it shipped out to Washington, blanket and all." Marge said. "He changed out the mattress and the bedding upstairs but left everything else alone. There's a bathroom, dining room, kitchen and parlor down here." She was going around turning on lights. "Are you going to be staying here?"

"No, I don't believe so." Dave said. He looked around the room. In the corner there was a standing case full of the sort of awards you'd get in high school, all jumbled together. A closer look revealed that more than a few of them had been awarded to one Spencer Charles Reid. "Proud of his grandson, huh?"

"Charlie?" Deputy Johnson grinned. "Oh yeah, Sheriff Orville would talk your ear off about him any time."

"You know Charlie?"

"Yeah, we were in 4H and Boy Scouts together, about a million years ago. Him, me and three quarters of the force. Hell, if he ever wanted to quit being a Fed he could take over. Sheriff Whitaker would hand him the job. That or get his ass handed to him in the next election."

"That I'd like to see." Dave chuckled. Spencer Reid as a small town sheriff. He'd relax for the first year and expire of boredom in the second. Still, there were worse ways to retire from the Bureau. There were pictures all over the mantle, of his friend, so very young then, and an older man with thick, iron gray hair, a remarkable moustache and beard combination and very familiar eyes. Most of them were taken at some competition or camp-out, Boy Scouts, 4H, Junior Rodeo sort of thing. One was the day Spencer graduated Academy, Jason Gideon was in that one and they all looked so proud. In some of the pictures they were both dressed in reenactment clothes to a striking effect.

Dave peered more closely at what looked to be the most recent picture. "That was from when they opened the National Police Museum here." Deputy Johnson said. "Sheriff Orville got Ethel to loan him the badge for the day."

"No kidding." It wasn't just that his family had somehow gotten Spencer Reid to dress like a law man from a hundred years ago, they loaned him an FBI badge from 1909 from the looks of it. "I have got to get a copy of this to take back to Quantico." That got a laugh.

When Dave moved into the dining room something else caught his eye. There was another fireplace in there, and over it was a long gun. "Is that a Winchester 1901?" He asked, more than a little amazed. Those were collector's items, worth thousands. He lifted it down reverently.

"Was." Deputy Johnson replied. "That's Sheriff Orville's horse gun. It's been modified pretty heavily."

"I'll say." Smaller gauge, likely. Looked like he'd extended the barrel, but no idea why. And there was something different about the lever action, and the stock was longer. It felt huge in his hands.

"I've never seen anyone but Sheriff Orville or Charlie able to really handle that thing. You kinda have to be that tall."

"Yeah, you would." But horse gun. Left hand on the reins, Dave thought, so he held the gun in his right. Sure enough, the stock more or less balanced against his forearm, would if his arm was a little longer, and the weight of those extra inches on the barrel... "I bet that's something to see."

"Yeah, it is."

Dave looked around a little longer, but there wasn't anything that would add anything to the case. They left and Marge gave him the spare key. "Anything else I can do for you?" Deputy Johnson asked.

"You guys are getting off shift right about now, aren't you?" Dave asked.

"Yes sir, that's about right?"

"What bar would be the best for hearing stories about Sheriff Orville?"

* * *

The next morning dawned bright and early. Morgan and Tara pulled up in front of the old Victorian and found Dave sitting on the front porch, savoring a hot cup of coffee and enjoying the cool mountain air and that hundred mile view. "You have got to be kidding me." Morgan said, taking in the house and the town and perhaps the entire situation in one broad sweep.

"Nope. This house used to belong to Sheriff Orville Reid, the last of the great Western sheriffs, beloved of the entire county. And now it belongs to his grandson." Dave replied. "Check this out." He handed Morgan the picture of the museum opening.

Morgan laughed for five minutes straight.

"Now I just hope we can snap him out of it." Dave said.

"He'll need to feel relaxed and safe first." Tara pointed out. She looked around, taking in the mountains and the town. "This might be just the place for that."

"I hope you're right."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 06**

Rossi, Morgan and Tara had spent the day before doing the spade work of learning about Charlie Sharon, while taking turns waiting at the house. Charlie and Caroline didn't show up, but that was a long shot. The team knew the odds were better of them arriving today. So once again they planted themselves early.

"So how are we going to snap him out of it?" Morgan asked.

Rossi had let himself into the house and made a pot of coffee, figuring that Spencer wouldn't mind. Someone, likely Marge, had put food in the kitchen, a good sign. Now they all gathered at the table. "Just snapping him back into Spencer might not be the best thing." Tara said. "For him or for the case."

"What do you mean?" Rossi asked.

"It won't help us if Spencer is too emotionally fragile to interview. We're just as likely to end up dealing with Joseph, and I don't know if he would have access to either set of memories. No, if it's at all possible our best bet would be to get the two personalities to merge, so Spencer would have access to both sets of memories, as well as Charlie's emotional resiliency."

"Do you think you can help him do it that quickly?" Rossi asked.

"If he's ready." Tara replied. "In his last meetings with Liz Hartman he expressed eager readiness, they just hadn't figured out how to trigger Charlie. That's what you have to do, get each side to recognize the other, then get them in a calm, safe place and ask them to try. Once you get to that point it only takes a few minutes. But that's not the problem."

"Then what's the problem?" Rossi asked.

"The problem is that Charlie is the healthiest of the personalities. By all rights he should fold Spencer's memories and experiences into Charlie, not the other way around. Spencer has just been through too much in life to be healthy anymore. Too much trauma, too many losses."

"But will he still want to be an FBI agent? Small town sheriff comes with a lot less trauma."

"That's a good question. We won't know until he tries to merge. It's up to him."

"And you think he's at that p..."

Morgan stopped mid sentence. Rossi and Tara looked up at him. He'd frozen in place, his face a mask, his hands slightly raised and open. He took a few steps forward and revealed why. He'd been standing in front of the open window, now a familiar long, lanky figure in glasses came through, while still holding the barrel of the gun he carried pressed between Morgan's shoulder blades. "I would like to know why you all are in Sheriff Orville's house." Spencer Reid said.

Rossi and Tara looked at each other. Spencer looked tired all right, and worn, with several bruises coming along nicely thanks to the beating he'd received from the Unsubs. But more than that his expressions, body language, even the rhythms of his speech didn't fit the Spencer Reid they knew. But it didn't fit the precursor to Sherlock Holmes either. Just to be on the safe side... "Charles Sharon?" Tara asked.

"Yeah, that's me." Charlie/Spencer replied. He looked taller than Spencer Reid, was more confident. Charlie didn't have Spencer's poor posture, which was really a way of appearing submissive to the bullies in the world. Charlie would stand up for himself. "Why are you in Sheriff Orville's house?"

Tara flashed her badge. There wasn't a hint of recognition in Charlie's eyes, just like there hadn't been when he saw Rossi, or when he saw Morgan. "We're with the FBI." She said. "We're looking for Spencer Reid."

Charlie lowered his weapon carefully. "Some people call me that." He admitted. He relaxed into something elegant, not Spencer's sharp nerves and lack of body awareness. This was some sort of athlete. "What do you want?"

"We just want to talk to Spencer." Rossi said. "We know he's in there, we just need to talk to him."

"In there?" Charlie holstered his weapon and moved to the back door, all fluid grace. "Come on in." He called out. "There's no trouble."

A moment later there were footsteps on the porch and Sara Peabody stepped in. She also looked to be in good shape, although travel worn. "Charlie?"

"They're from the FBI." He said. "They want to talk to me, I think."

"We need to talk to Spencer." Tara said.

"Like I said, that's the name people use for me sometimes. Sheriff Orville always said to go along with it." He shrugged and pulled two more cups out of the cupboard, poured coffee.

"I know what you want." Sara said. "You want to talk to Spencer and Sara."

"Aren't you Sara?" Rossi asked.

"No, I'm Caroline. Sara's dead. And Spencer's not coming out again." But she said it more like she didn't want it to happen than like it wouldn't

"You're talking about him like he's someone else." Charlie said. He leaned easily against the sink like he owned the room. "I'm right here."

"Yes and no darling." Caroline replied. "He's another person living inside your head. All those years you can't remember? He was running things. He's the one they want to talk to. If you sit quietly for a bit you can probably hear him."

They watched as Charlie tried exactly that. He went very quiet, the only movement the swirl of the coffee in his cup as he cooled it. "No." He said quietly. "Not right now." They watched him take a long sip of black coffee. "Now I'm sorry but you all will have to leave. We've been on the road a long time and we're pretty tired."

"No?" Morgan said. "What do you mean no?"

"Derek..." Tara warned

"Look, your name is Spencer Reid. You are an FBI agent. Look here." He had the picture of Spencer receiving his badge set aside, now he pushed it under Charlie's nose. "We have been partners for ten years. You know me. You know all of us."

As soon as Charlie saw the picture he winced hard, grimacing and pressing the heel of his hand against his temple like he needed to keep things from falling out. He sloshed his coffee pushing the picture away. "Get out." He growled. "Get out of my house."

"Spencer."

"Out! Else I'll call Sheriff Whitaker and you can sort it out in the jail!" He drew up tall in front of Derek Morgan, all physical challenge, something Spencer Reid would never do. They all knew the body language of a fight about to start, and it shocked them.

"All right." Tara said. "We're going. But here." She left a business card next to a cell phone on the table. "When you're ready to talk about it, please call me." She hustled the other two out in front of her.

"What are you doing?" Morgan said. "We need him!"

"We need him calm and willing to work with us!" Tara replied. "Combative is not going to help here!"

"She's right." Rossi said. "We planted the seed, now we let it grow."

"And we just wait?" Morgan asked.

"Wait and watch. And I know where to get the best view."

* * *

 **Fourth Ward School Museum  
Virginia City, NV**

One block up from the Prescott house was the Fourth Ward School Museum, the last surviving three story Victorian school house in the country. From the third floor balcony they had a clear view of the Prescott house and everything for blocks around. If anyone came anywhere near the house they'd know it. But at the moment this end of town was quiet. The only thing moving around the house was a tall, lanky figure in blue jeans and boots cradling a mug as he slowly paced around the porches. "Why isn't he calling us?" Morgan said.

"If that wasn't Spencer, if that was someone else, what would his body language indicate?" Rossi asked.

"That he was deep in thought."

"Good. Let him think about it for a while. He's not going anywhere."

"Hope not. What do you think she meant when she said Sara was dead?"

"I have no idea."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 06**

Charlie Sharon was indeed thinking. Because when those strangers came into his house, the house Sheriff Orville had so graciously left him, and shoved that picture in his face all these strange thoughts and memories started falling through his head like glass. It hurt, it was physically painful to think of some of them. He wasn't exactly sure what it meant, and he really wasn't sure he liked it. He thought his way through a hot shower and a change of clothes and making more coffee and he was thinking now.

He looked up at the rap of boot heels on the plank kitchen floor. "Hey." He said as what had to be the most beautiful girl in the world came out to wrap her arms around his waist. He had to be the luckiest man on the planet, swear.

"Hey yourself." Caroline replied. "What are you doing out here?"

"Thinking."

"About?"

"Those strangers and what they were saying."

"They were right you know. Sara told me. Your name really is Spencer and you really are an FBI agent. You can go back to that if you want." She smiled up at him, but her smile was all nerves and misgivings. "I'll still love you."

"Good to know." He caught a lock of her hair, soft silk between his fingers. "I don't know that I want that though. I don't want to lose this. The past few days I've been so happy with you, knowing we were going home. And I get the feeling that this Spencer, whoever he is, knows a lot of pain. I'm not sure he wants to go back." Life here would be so easy, all friends and good times and no losing people, no monsters, no risks. She was right about another...not a voice but a person of sorts...in there and he was deeply tempted to just float away and let him stay.

"Then don't." And now her smile beamed like the sun. "Stay Charlie. We'll find work here, settle down in this house. I won't complain."

"I've been thinking about that. But at the same time I can't help feeling like I'm going to be losing something if I do." That was why that other person wasn't leaving. There was something big back east waiting for him.

"Then be both at once. Merge both lives together. I took the important bits before I let Sara go. It doesn't have to be one or the other."

"Maybe." It was a tempting thought. Could he really have it all? Could he feel like this, calm and strong and certain and free and at the same time have that big thing in his life? "But I get the feeling they'll be unhappy if I do."

"Who will be unhappy?"

"I'm not sure..." But there was someone. There were a lot of someones out there who didn't like him, who thought he was a fuck-up, egghead, nerd, useless, danger to the team...the litany of what that other person thought about himself was horrible. If Charlie knew someone like that he'd have to sit him down and make friends with him because he badly needed them. Maybe keep him up here to be with good folks a while, to learn that assholes like that aren't everywhere.

"Whoever they are, screw them. I know my brother is going to be upset that Sara's gone. I make him feel guilty all the time and I embarrass him and the rest of the family. He's just going to die of shame when he finds out. But you know what? That night we spent in that field in Kansas, when it was all stars overhead, I finally figured out what Dr. Hartman was trying to tell me. You can't live your life for other people, you have to live for yourself, and live however makes you happy. He's an adult, he needs to deal with his own guilt and stop expecting me to be someone who's not really me so he doesn't have to. And whoever will be unhappy with you will just have to deal with that too."

Charlie considered this a long moment. "I don't know if I can though." For a moment he sounded a lot like someone else...

"I don't know if you can either. You just have to try if you want to. But I think you can hold all the memories, good and bad. And I think you can be an FBI agent and a western gentleman at the same time. And I know I'll be there to help, no matter what."

Could he? It was a risk. Would this mean no more mountain towns that felt more real than anything else anywhere? No more knowing exactly your place in the world? No more community filled with friends who knew how to treat each other with kindness and respect? No more long rides in the desert? No more campfires and endless stars overhead? No more nights with love in his arms? "Will you be all right if I do?"

Caroline's eyes turned sad and honest. "I don't know." She replied. "This is the first time I've been home in a long time. But even this place doesn't feel right anymore. I don't know."

He was so tempted just to send those strangers on their way. Stay here, stay home, make a life here again. But if he had all of that, he would be losing something enormous. What was it? "No matter what happens we stick together."

"Yeah, we do." And that was honest too.

"How do I do this?"

"I don't know. I couldn't tell you how I did it, I just kind of did. I tried calling Dr. Hartman but she didn't answer." She held up that slip of paper the strange woman had left. "This card said she's a doctor too, maybe she can help."

Charlie took a deep breath and took the phone Caroline was holding.

* * *

 **Fourth Ward School Museum  
Virginia City, NV**

Tara let out a long breath as she hung up the phone. "He said he wants to try."

Rossi and Morgan let out the air they had been holding. When they saw Spencer dialing a phone they had hoped he was calling. "Let's go." Morgan said.

"He wants to try in the morning." Tara replied.

"What? Why wait?"

"No idea. But this is entirely up to him."

"And he has other priorities." Rossi said, nodding at the house down the hill.

* * *

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

"Why in the morning?" Caroline asked.

"Because I don't know what's going to happen." Charlie replied. "And I figure if I have enough memories I might not lose them all." With that he threaded his fingers in her hair and kissed her again, long and deeply and with a great deal of intent. He kissed her into the house and through the kitchen and when he came to the stairs he lifted her into his arms so her legs could settle around his waist and he wouldn't have to stop kissing her to climb the stairs. He even kept kissing her as he lowered her into the big four poster bed.

* * *

 **Fourth Ward School Museum  
Virginia City, NV**

"Can't say I blame him." Rossi said.

"Okay, we are not watching them through the window." Tara said. Because if you didn't know what was going on behind those lace curtains you likely wouldn't notice but if you did the shadowy figures were clear enough. She herded the other two down the stairs. "They're clearly not going anywhere tonight. We'll get the Sheriff to post a man in front of the house and see what happens in the morning."

"Yeah." Morgan replied. "At least we can tell Hotch and baby girl that we found them."

* * *

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 07**

The next morning was another of those bright, clear dawns over the desert. Charlie stood at the front door, watching out the window for the strangers to arrive. This was where Caroline found him, where she came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. "What if this doesn't work?" He asked.

"Pretty sure you won't be any worse off than you are now." She replied.

"What if I lose my mind trying?"

"I don't think you will."

He was quiet a long moment. "My mother lost her mind." His mother Sarah...no, Diana...which was it? Did it matter? "My father left her over it. Left us over it. You know, that might be the only thing I'm honestly afraid of. My own mind."

Caroline pressed a kiss to the top of his spine. "You're not losing me. No matter what."

"I am so grateful for that." There was a black SUV driving up to the front door. "Will you marry me?"

"At the church our families built?"

Which families? "Of course."

"Then yes, I'll marry you."

The strangers were coming up the steps. The strangers who looked so familiar. "What do you want for a ring?"

"I don't need an engagement ring. Your word's better than diamonds and gold. For the wedding?" The strangers knocked. Caroline squeezed him tight one more time. "Comstock silver."

"All right. I don't know if we'll have to find it or make it but I promise you we'll have a home."

She smiled up at him. "Better than diamonds and gold."

"Always." He took a deep breath. "Let them in."

He knew them. He knew them, especially the two men. He knew them, but how? From where? Why did he know in his gut he could trust them? He didn't know, but when the older one said that Caroline should go with them, leave him and the doctor here to talk, somehow he knew she'd be just fine.

He'd been wondering over it so hard he missed the preliminaries. Now it was just him and the doctor alone and moving to sit at the table. "I don't want to lose everything." He said.

"You won't." She replied.

"You sure?"

She took a deep breath. "Let's just try."

* * *

They didn't know where to go and Tara had said it wouldn't take long if it worked at all, so they went out to the kitchen first, for coffee, and then out to the back porch. "What did you mean yesterday," Rossi asked, "when you said Sara is dead?"

"I mean I decided not to keep her around anymore." Caroline replied. "I was only keeping her for my brother. He always feels so guilty and so upset when I...well, whenever I'm angry or upset or I regret what happened or anything really. I kept Sara around because she never felt anything. He said he always had hope that Caroline, that I, would go away and Sara would be all that was left. He said that was the way it was supposed to be."

"And you didn't want that?" Morgan asked.

She looked up at him. "Sara couldn't feel love." She replied. "I decided on the trip out here I didn't want to live without love, without feeling like I belonged somewhere, without peace and joy and freedom. I didn't even want to try anymore, not even to make Tom happy. So I...I don't know, I kind of took in her memories and let her go." She looked into her coffee cup with a little sigh. "I have a lot to talk to Dr. Hartman about, I think, but I'm not sad that I let her go. I'm actually relieved. And if that means that Tom is going to have to get his own shrink and deal with his own guilt and fleas then so be it."

"Sara couldn't feel love." Rossi said. "Does that mean you and Spencer..."

"Spencer loves me. Caroline. And I love him." She smiled. "He liked Sara but he loved me. He always knew then difference. He could tell from the very first."

Rossi shrugged. "What about Ellen?"

Caroline frowned. "Hopefully I'll never need Ellen again."

Just then a Sheriff's cruiser came around the corner a little too fast and stopped in front of the cottage a little too quickly. "Agents!" The deputy called out as he came around the corner. "We have a problem"


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 07**

There was no nice way to put it. The terrorists, or whatever they were, were parked in the middle of the tourist district, squatting in the parking lot in front of Piper's Opera House. From the top floor Morgan could see the barrels packed in the back of the truck. "How much explosive is that?" Dave asked.

"Too much. And this town is all dry wood; it'll go up like tinder."

"Worse than that." Sheriff Whitaker said. "This whole town is built over the old mine tunnels. A big enough explosion will cause cave-ins. And the father-daughter ball is in two days, do you have any idea how many children are in town this week?"

"I'm trying not to think about that." Dave said. "And ATV's too?"

"My boys say they're keeping a perimeter on the downhill side of town."

The downhill side, the way to Carson City and Reno, the two nearest cities. Dave considered this. While he thought they headed back to the Sheriff's personal truck, the better to duck down and avoid one of the terrorists roaming the town. With the terrorists already watching the station the best place to go seemed to be back to the house, at least to start. It was at the furthest end of town, they had a little time before the terrorists got that far.

"They're checking every vehicle leaving town." Deputy Johnson reported when they got to the gazebo in Orville Reid's back yard. "They're claiming to be volunteers looking for a missing child."

"That's a good cover." Morgan replied. "Most people would stop and let them take a once over of the car for that. We can call the Bureau office in Reno; they'll have a hundred agents and cops up here in an hour."

"No they won't." Deputy Johnson replied. "It's Thursday."

"So?"

"Harry over at the fuel station is getting his delivery this morning."

"So?"

"So there is one road in and out of this town." Sheriff Whitaker replied. "You've been on it. One lane each way, steep, narrow, all those hairpin turns. Right now there's a semi hauling a double tanker of gasoline up that road. If he's lucky he's making five miles an hour. That traffic jam won't clear out until this afternoon. It won't take them that long to clear the town."

"What do you do in an emergency?" Dave asked.

"Helo. Air ambulance. But they'd notice that."

"I have an idea." Said an oh so familiar voice from behind them.

The group turned. Sure enough Spencer was standing there, with Tara at his side. At least it was Spencer's body, but who was running the show? "Do you still have reenactments at noon Sheriff?"

"Every day but Sunday." Sheriff Whitaker said.

"How many people can you round up for a posse?"

"Bout ten with gear I guess."

"Mr. Simmons still have that Corvette?"

"You know it. He's buffs that thing with a diaper every Saturday."

Only Charlie would remember all of that. Dave and Morgan looked at each other and took a deep breath.

"Morgan, I know you're afraid of bears. How are you with horses?" Spencer Reid met his friend's eyes and smiled.

* * *

 **Municipal Stables  
Virginia City, NV**

"You'll want to remember to hold on tight." Deputy Lopez said.

Horses. Derek Morgan was a kid from the deep urban jungle. He'd never been within touching distance of a horse in his life. Now he about to get on the back of one, with the tiniest deputy in the Storey County Sheriff's Department on the saddle in front of him. "Why? And no offence but why couldn't I go with one of the guys?"

"Because horses have a weight limit. You're kind of on the big side." She gave him an admiring up and down look. "And you want to hold on tight because these are western quarter horses."

"So?"

"So they can hit sixty when warmed up."

"Sixty? Miles an hour?" Morgan looked at the seemingly enormous beast in front of him and took a deep breath.

"Yep." She mounted easily and walked the horse over to a set of steps. "Come on then."

Morgan took a deep breath and walked up the steps, only to hear chuckling behind him. "What are you doing?"

"Filming this for Garcia." Spencer replied. He was, in fact, holding up his cell phone and filming Morgan's first ever attempt to ride a horse.

"Oh you think you're funny now."

"Yes I do."

Okay, this new hybrid Tara had created sounded like Spencer Reid, it thought like Spencer Reid, it remembered like Spencer Reid, but it had a much easier smile and was a lot more confident. Morgan wasn't complaining about that, this was how Spencer Reid had been on those few, really good days. He was not going to complain if his friend was like that a lot more often.

He _was_ mentally complaining about trusting his life to this animal here, one that seemed to be moving a lot as he swung his leg over and found his balance and ended up clinging on to Deputy Lopez for dear life. "Okay. Okay." He hung on while Lopez kind of walked it around in a big circle. "Okay. We can do this." He kept one arm wrapped around Lopez and pulled his own phone out with the other so he could make his own recording. "Let's see what you got pretty boy." In reply Spencer laughed, and when had his laugh ever been so easy, mounted his larger and more jumpy horse in one fluid motion and trotted around Morgan in a bouncy sort of circle. "Now you're showing off."

"Yes. Yes I am."

Morgan eyed the long gun sitting in the holster. "You really think you can handle that?" Spencer looked like he was about to say something, but for a moment his eyes closed and he looked very far away. "You okay?"

"Remembering something. Yes, I can handle this. My Grandfather taught me at that range right over there." He nodded to a fenced off space over that way. "I think I'm pretty good at it too. Pull your bandanna up." Spencer did his, covering his mouth and nose, and his hat down on his head. All that was left showing was his glasses.

Morgan did the same, as did the other riders in their group.

"Let's go." Dave said. He and Tara led the procession to the center of town.

Morgan held tight to Lopez as they followed. If we live through today, he thought, I am going to spend a lot of time getting to know my little brother again.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

 **Virginia City, NV - Six Mile Canyon**

 **Day 07**

The goal was a simple one. Distract the terrorists around the bomb so they could be captured. Lead the rest of them out of town and away from any potential hostages. Lead them to a place where they could all be arrested. And somehow do it over the rough mountain terrain, to keep it from the traffic jam on the main road and the potential bomb leading it.

Thankfully Orville Reid had once been sheriff here.

* * *

At 11:15 am that Thursday morning a vintage Corvette convertible pulled into the outgoing Virginia City traffic.

It was stopped at the edge of town. "Missing child." Said the man with the rifle at the corner, the one wearing a Sheriff's volunteer hat and speaking with a thick, Eastern European accent. "We must check every car."

"Of course Deputy." Dave Rossi said. "There's not much to check." He waved over Tara Lewis' shoulder.

There wasn't. This was a two seater, no more. There wasn't even room in the trunk to hide a certain lanky doctor. And if they recognized the FBI agent they gave no sign. "Okay." The man said as he waved them through.

Dave nodded and he and Tara drove off the mountain to go share what they just learned.

* * *

Right at noon the daily entertainment began. A man in a silk waistcoat and eyeshade came out of the bank. "Call the Sheriff!" He called out to the throngs of families crowding the sidewalk and even the street, and to the terrorists intermingled with them. "Call the Sheriff! Outlaws! Outlaws! The bank's been robbed!"

That was the signal for a band of outlaws to come out from behind the bank. They certainly looked like outlaws to anyone in the crowd, with their rough coats, black hats pulled low and bandannas covering their faces. They held their guns high and shot off the sharp crack of blanks as their horses danced around.

"Hey!" Called a loud voice from up the street. "Stop you thieves!" The crowd, families and terrorists alike, turned to see the Sheriff's posse just up the street. People who had been there before might have noticed that this group of riders wasn't exactly in reenactment dress. It looked like they were wearing real uniforms, and the horses were wearing Storey County Sheriff saddle blankets. But they were playing along; surely it was all part of the show. "Stop right now!"

In reply the outlaws pointed blank guns at the posse and started shooting as they carefully rode down the street.

In response the posse rode after them. As the posse closed up the outlaws rode a little faster, then a little faster still, trying to give the impression of a fine chase while still keeping safe around picture takers and wandering children. The crowd ate it up. They cheered on the posse and hooted the bad guys and were having a fine time.

Until one of the outlaws lost her hat, causing everyone to look a little closer.

"Eto oni!" Someone called out. "Vzyat' ikh!"

"We're made!" One of the outlaws called out.

The best way anyone could describe it was that all of a sudden both groups of riders hit the gas.

Derek Morgan nearly lost it right there. What had seemed way too fast but what was in reality barely a trot suddenly became a full on gallop. Through traffic. But these riders were experts, all had been through Sheriff Orville's "rodeo" training, and they wove in and out of cars and motorcycles and even people with ease. Morgan watched with amazement as one particularly tall one led the way, without any hesitation. He never would have guessed. Not at all.

The riders turned at the end of town and poured down the hill out to Cemetery Road, quickly hitting full stride they got out ahead of the ATV's patrolling the town. The horses were nimble, and with their riders comfortable with the terrain, which was a good thing as they wove in between the headstones. The ATV riders were neither. For a few moments the horses had the advantage, which was all they needed to lead the majority of the terrorists away from the town. All that was left was the truck with the bomb, which Sheriff Whitaker and his remaining men could handle with ease.

The problem was that after those few minutes the horses had to slow, they couldn't keep up max speed forever. Which gave the ATV's a chance to catch up. And those men on those ATV's wanted them to stop. And they weren't carrying blanks. Morgan winced as a round passed way too close to his head for his liking, but he didn't dare let go to fire back.

That tall rider in the front slowed a bit, pulled in between Morgan and Lopez and the ATV on that side. As Morgan watched Spencer pulled that long, odd gun from the saddle holster, easily keeping control of the horse with one hand. "Reid..."

Spencer pointed at the ATV engine and fired.

The gun gave the distinctive deep bark of a shotgun, a cloud came up from the engine, and the ATV suddenly veered off and rolled.

As Morgan watched Spencer kept hold of the odd, lever thing on the bottom of the gun, and kind of flipped the whole thing around in a giant circle. He heard the distinctive sound of a shotgun racking, something that normally took two hands...

As another ATV pulled up alongside of them Spencer shot that one in the engine too.

All around him the posse was shooting back. And they were better at shooting moving targets from moving objects. A lot better. And they knew how to herd fast moving objects as well, they got outside the ATV's and started getting them to go the way they wanted them to.

Some of the riders started hooting and hollering.

Spencer looked at Morgan with an enormous grin.

Morgan was just...just..."Oh you people are not having fun!"

* * *

At the end of the road the riders turned into what at first looked like a giant canyon. But as they poured up the hill Morgan realized it wasn't. This was what a basalt mine looked like, high, terraced sides forming armored walls. Perfect for an ambush. Two large mine trucks provided cover for the riders and their horses.

Of course to the terrorists it looked like the riders took a wrong turn, like they were trapped. "We want the doctor!"

"You know you don't have the high ground." One of the deputies replied. "Right?"

All of a sudden the rim above them was lined with armed police. "FBI!" Aaron Hotchner called out. He had his rifle pointed at the leader's forehead. "Drop your weapons."

They were surrounded, and surrendered.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

 **Six Mile Canyon  
Storey County, NV**

 **Day 07**

"How?" Rossi asked.

"My predecessor." Sheriff Whitaker replied. "He practically ran the county Junior Rodeo program. At the national level only girls compete in barrel racing and pole bending over the age of nine, boys usually go to steer wrestling, bull riding or bronco riding. But Sheriff Orville insisted that rodeo was supposed to be about how well you could work with your horse, not about breaking bones and animals. He made the boys train and compete in the agility events alongside the girls right through senior high, and he included cowboy action shooting with it. Winning kinda became a local point of pride over the past, oh, three generations now. As a result we have some outstanding riders and riflemen in this town."

"I'll say."

* * *

"Think this ends it?" Tara asked.

"Doubtful." Hotch replied. "I don't think we have the leader. Hopefully this will substantially cripple them and give us some time." He looked from the throng of law enforcement to Tara. "How did you do it?"

Tara knew he didn't mean this. "The credit has to go to Liz Hartman. It took the past two years for her to get him to the point where it could happen. Spencer didn't know how to call Charlie out but he had a pretty good idea of what was valuable in Charlie. Charlie didn't know what was part of Spencer's life was valuable. I showed him. Once both sides realized they each had something they didn't want to lose they had to merge. After that it was easy."

"And Spencer won?"

"I wouldn't call it winning, but in the end Spencer had the stronger personality, despite not being as healthy as Charlie. But he kept a lot more of Charlie than I expected."

"What was valuable?"

"Charlie has a community, a life he actually enjoys, and a place that feels safe and like home. But Spencer has a family." Tara smiled. "You might not want to tell JJ that I used her kids there."

Hotch smiled. "That would do it. That was enough to push him over?"

"I had to promise Charlie that we would help him and Caroline make a life they could enjoy in DC. Spencer's been there for twelve years and outside of the relationships he's made with the FBI he hasn't really settled in at all. And Caroline is still having family issues; she'll need support while she works those out."

"We can help with that. Think he'll be able to return to the field?"

"I'm not an expert. Spencer wants to go to Vegas from here and get an expert evaluation, but my best guess? Yes, after a break. He needs some time off to settle a few things, but once he does he should be even more resilient than before."

"Good enough."

* * *

 **Municipal Stables  
Virginia City, NV**

Morgan had suggested that the deputies could take care of the horses, that Spencer should go back to the house and pack up to go. They had collectively reacted like he had suggested they sacrifice a bald eagle to Moloch over the Constitution. So he'd watched Spencer walk his horse around like the horse was cooling down, take it over to the vet the Sheriff had insisted be there for a check, put it in one of the trailers, bring it back here, check it all over, give it a bath...

This was where JJ found him, leaning against a fence, watching Spencer Reid clean and care for a horse. "Seriously?" JJ asked.

"It sounds like Reid." Morgan said. "It looks like Reid. But it's not acting like Reid."

"Sounds like Reid?"

"I pointed out that he's too germaphobic to shake hands but he's cleaning up after a horse. He's been lecturing for twenty minutes on antibiotic-resistant bacteria on the human hand."

"Yeah, that would sound like Reid."

"But..." Morgan waved at the tall, lanky figure forking dirty hay out of the stall. And the horse wasn't even in the stable, it was in a fenced off field with the other horses.

"Yeahhh. What happened to the one that got nicked?"

"Already at the vet. The vet said it would be fine but you would think one of their own was bleeding out. The two guys who got shot are here instead of the ER." Morgan gestured to two deputies with bandages on, one around an arm, one a thigh, who were cleaning up their horses. "But the horse goes straight to the vet. I do not understand."

"Don't look at me, I grew up in suburbia. I played soccer."

They watched as Spencer made sure the stall had clean hay and fresh water and was likely more squared away than his apartment. When he turned to the saddle and everything else Morgan thought he would tear out his hair if he had any, but one of the deputies spoke up. "Don't worry about the tack, Charlie. We got it."

"Thanks." Spencer replied with a grin.

"Thank you Jesus." Morgan muttered.

Spencer finally left the stable. They watched as he went over to the fence, where a completely different horse, this one a soft grey, came over to meet him. Spencer fed him what had to be a treat and stroked his nose and got said nose in his face in return. "Friend of yours?" JJ asked.

"Yeah. This is Arthur. He was my horse growing up."

JJ and Morgan smiled at each other. There was a lot of love there. "Why didn't you take him out today?" Morgan asked.

"He's thirty-five. That's old for a horse, he wouldn't have made it." Spencer was still cuddling Arthur. "I try to spend some time with him whenever I come out."

"Is he coming back to DC with us?" Morgan asked. "He's kinda big for the plane."

Spencer chuckled and shook his head. "He's retired now. Part of Granddad's will left enough for his horses to be cared for here for the rest of their lives."

"Aww, that's nice." JJ said.

Spencer finally finished saying good-bye to Arthur and walked over to where he had left his boots, to change out of the rubber ones he had been wearing. "Are you done?" Morgan asked.

"Just let me wash my hands." Spencer replied. "And say good-bye to everyone."

"Are you planning on coming back here?" JJ sounded like she was holding her breath.

"On vacation." JJ and Morgan both relaxed a bit. "I'm keeping the house for it."

That was all right. "You know we're going to have to come out here at least once." JJ said. "Henry would love it here."

"You'd better." Spencer smiled as he moved to a sink to clean up a bit. "Morgan said you found Granddad's old tack trunk in my closet."

"Yeah, we did. I'm sorry..."

"It's all right, I understand. I kind of remember packing that for a reason but I had to ship it out to DC and by the time it got there I kind of...well, I kind of forgot? It's complicated."

"That's all right, I get it."

"Anyway, that's the saddle I used when I was first learning to ride, when I was seven. It's sized for a child."

"Okay, why..." All of a sudden JJ knew why. Morgan started laughing as her eyes went wide. "No. No, Spence. Oh do not give me those puppy eyes! No!"

"Oh you know junior agent is going to want to be junior cowboy now." Morgan said.

"I just have to find a stable somewhere around DC that has western trained horses." Spencer said. "It will be so much fun."

"What will be?" Deputy Lopez asked.

"He's transferring his stress to me!" JJ replied.

"When I get back to DC I'm going to teach my godson to ride." Spencer said. "I just need to find a stable."

"Awesome!" Lopez replied with a grin.

JJ rested her head on Morgan's shoulder and started making sobbing noises.

Morgan laughed as he patted her. This could be all right.

"I need to make one stop before we get to the house." Spencer said.

"You smell like a horse." Morgan pointed out. "Shower first?"

"No, this is important. And no one here cares." There was an assertiveness, a firmness, in Spencer's voice and manner that had not been there before.

This, Morgan thought, was going to take some getting used to.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 07**

Caroline had been left behind when the wild ride had led the terrorists out of town. This was where Rossi found her, standing on the porch, looking out over the town. "Everything's going to be all right now." He said. "But you don't look happy about something."

Caroline was quiet a long moment. "I don't know that I want to go back to DC." She admitted at last.

Most people's first instinct would be to panic. Of course she wanted to go back, who in their right mind would want to stay? But Rossi was not most people. "Why not?" He asked.

"This is home." She replied. But that wasn't all, he let the answer hang there and waited for her to go deeper. "When I was a little girl I never felt like I belonged anywhere, like I was in the place where I should be. I used to lie in my bed at night and cry and cry because I wanted to go home. I was in my own room in my parent's house and all I wanted was to go home. I didn't know where that was but I knew that I wasn't there and I wanted it with everything I had. And then one day we went up to the lake for vacation and my Grandma met us there. She said come on; I'm going to show you something special. I must have fallen asleep in the car because the next thing I knew I was here. I was home. No place ever felt that right before, I felt so safe and warm and cozy in this hundred year old place covered in snow. It was the most perfect place I ever knew."

"What happened?"

"Eventually we had to go home. I fell asleep again and I woke up in my own bed back in San Francisco. Mom was yelling and I remembered this perfect place and it _hurt_. It hurt so bad to remember this place and to not be able to get back to it. That was the first time I split, I couldn't handle the pain of remembering and knowing that it was out there somewhere and not being able to get here. And then one time I fell asleep on the plane and I woke up at school and..." She shook her head, not able to articulate it just then. "I never came back here. I never went home again."

"Why not come back as an adult?"

"Every time I tried my parents or my brother stopped me. They can be...remarkably persistent."

"Most people discount the power of emotional abuse. DC never felt like home?"

"No...n...no. At group, sometimes and when I was..."

"We had to check out your apartment. Why not make it like home?"

"Because whenever I let Caroline out where my family could see they...attacked. I was an embarrassment, you see. Even now, for my brother. It reminds him of what happened and he feels guilty and embarrassed because I'm different. Guilt and shame makes him mean. I think I'm just going to have to not talk to him for a while. Until I'm stronger perhaps."

"That's understandable."

"Then what happened...happened. I thought they had shot Spencer, I thought he was dying and I lost it. I hope I didn't...I didn't hurt..."

"They deserved what they got. It's all right." Rossi said.

She nodded. "When I pulled out of it I realized I was finally meeting Charlie. He was so sweet, so kind. I told him who I was and we talked and he said he wanted to take me home. No one had ever said that to me before." Caroline started to cry. "I told him I was from here and he said he was too. He got the money from their wallets and then he said 'Well, Miss Caroline, I guess we'll go home and figure it out from there.' And here we are. Home. He actually brought me home." She smiled at the town. "I just don't know if I can leave again."

"I think you can." Rossi leaned on the railing next to her. "For one thing you can always come back. That's your choice now, no one else's."

"That's true."

"And you can set up a life in DC that you enjoy, that you feel comfortable with, without consulting your brother. He's not the only one in your life anymore, you don't need him like you used to."

"I don't even know where to start."

"You'll figure that out. But the big thing I noticed, you were able to merge Caroline and Sara somewhere between DC and here. That takes being comfortable, feeling safe, which meant you felt very much like you were at home at some point between there and here."

"I...I did."

"And you said that there were times when you felt at home in DC, when you were in group and...I assume when you were with someone?"

"Yes, I..."

"You see, one thing I have learned is that home is not really a place. Home has nothing to do with a location or a house or the stuff in it; it has to do with people. Home is where you feel safe, respected, understood, and loved. I think this place felt like home not because it's a holdover from a hundred years ago, or because it's far away from everything or because it's quaint or it was snowing or anything else. I think you felt at home because your Grandmother was here and your abusers were not. And I think once DC is a place where the people who care about you, your friends and lovers are, and your abusers are not, then DC will magically become home."

She was listening, letting his words seep in. "What if it doesn't?"

"Then we come back here and start over until we figure out how to make it happen. But I think it will. Starting with the one in the back of the car pulling up."

"Shower." Morgan said as they got out of the car.

"I'm not that bad." Spencer replied. "And I'm supposed to pack."

"We will pack for you Spence." JJ said. They moved to the back and started pulling out empty boxes. "Morgan's right."

"I am not getting on the plane with you smelling like a horse." Morgan insisted.

"Oh all right. Just give me a minute." Spencer walked over to where Rossi and Caroline were standing.

Rossi patted Caroline on the shoulder before he moved away. "Give it a chance bella." He said.

Then Spencer was there, taking her hands. "You know, I remember you saying my word was better than gold and diamonds." He said.

"Do you remember what else I said?"

"You said yes." He smiled, a shyer smile than Charlie's. "And I remembered what you asked for and I wanted you to have some to hold on to, so..." And then he was placing something cold into her hand.

Caroline looked down at what looked like a coin, folded and turned into a ring. "1880?" She asked

"It's a Seated Liberty Half-Dollar. That's when it was minted. The year you were born, right?"

"Yeah..."

"And look here." He was holding another one, now he turned it so she could see the inside. "See the CC there?"

"Yeah."

"That's the Carson City mint." He pointed to the city at the base of the hills. "Just down there."

"So..."

"This silver came out of this mountain. It was born here the same year you were born here. Comstock silver."

She smiled a little. "You know, that's not true..."

He shrugged. "I don't think things always have to be true to be real." He slipped the ring over her finger, and then one on his. "I don't want either of us to lose our way home again."

Maybe Agent Rossi is right, Caroline thought. She stepped easily into Spencer's arms. "I don't think we ever will."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

 **CJ Prescott House  
Virginia City, NV**

 **Day 07**

Touchstones, Tara said. Things to bring Charlie's world into Spencer's. To make it clear that there didn't need to be a split anymore, that memories didn't need to be painful, that he could have both sides of the coin in one life. For the near term he would need that constantly reinforced to strengthen the join.

So they packed. Not much, a couple of boxes of books and photos were expected. A couple of large duffels of clothing were less so, but manageable. A couple of old quilts were kind of surprising, but hey, whatever worked. But..."The coffee pot?" Morgan asked. "Really?"

Spencer considered. "No, better to leave this here for when we come out. I bet I can find one on Amazon, have it meet us in DC. The sugar jar too."

Morgan was about to say something but JJ gave him That Look. "I'll ask my baby girl to help. She can shop for anything." Of course there was one thing. "Take that though." Morgan said.

"It's really meant for here..." Spencer said.

"Take it."

"Isn't it kind of...flashy?"

"Take it. I know it will come in handy someday."

Spencer sighed and packed Sheriff Orville's shotgun to go back to DC with them.

"Where's your luggage?" JJ asked Caroline.

"I don't have any." Caroline said. "I left DC with the clothes on my back. These are Spencer's."

"Oh we need to fix that." JJ said. "We'll find something in Reno."

When it was over, when they had packed and Marge said she would clean up and shut down the house until they returned, and Spencer had said good by to all his friends and his Aunt and Uncle, there was one more thing. Spencer stepped out the door, then stepped back in, pulled four hats off a rack by the door, put three in a half-full box and the fourth on his head. "No." Morgan said.

"Yes." Spencer replied.

"No!"

"Yes."

"You are not going back to DC wearing a cowboy hat!"

"I am totally going back to DC wearing a cowboy hat."

Morgan groaned as JJ laughed at him.

* * *

 **The Cosmopolitan  
Las Vegas, NV**

They drove to Reno. While the team cleared up the last of the immediate paperwork at the field office a couple of agents took Caroline to run some errands. Then they got on the plane to fly to Vegas for the night.

The problem with that was that it took them back to the 21st century. On one of her errands Caroline acquired a new cell phone. Almost as soon as she turned it on it rang. She took a deep breath. "Hello Tom...I'm fine, and it's Caroline. No, it's not Sara."

And then the fight got started.

It ended with Caroline storming out of the galley, throwing herself into a seat and chucking her phone, which sent it skidding across the table and in to Spencer's lap. "I'm sorry." He said.

"Oh, it's all right." Caroline said. She'd grown more tired through the conversation. "He thinks everything is about him, that I'm punishing him by reminding him of what happened and deliberately embarrassing him. If I just went back to Sara everything would be fine. We could all go back to living in happy denial."

"That wouldn't be healthy for any of you." Tara said. "But he needs to work on this on his own. You can't force yourself to stay sick so he doesn't have to work on his own issues."

"Yeah, I know." But she reached over and held Spencer's hand tight. "He said he arranged a hotel with Agent Cruz."

"He did." Hotch said. "Higher security."

Which was how they ended up here, in the most ultra-modern hotel in Las Vegas. Everything was glass and chrome and moving digital displays, sleek, blown out, glossy women in skin-tight dresses and men in the latest from Europe. And right in the middle of it two people in denim and dusty cowboy boots looking like they just landed on another planet. "Remember what I said about touchstones to stay anchored?" Tara said.

"Yeah." Morgan replied. He had kind of assigned himself as Tara's helper in looking after Spencer and his girl for a few days.

"This is the opposite of that."

"No kidding." It might be amazing, if Caroline didn't look like she was going to be sick. Even Spencer didn't look at all comfortable. The rest of them might be able to make the switch between hundred and seventy year old cottage and this fairly easily, but they were both a little too fragile right now. "I'm going to go see if baby girl can find us a different hotel."

"Hotch said something about security."

There was that. "Damn."

"Let me try something." Tara went to shepherd her charges off to one side, pull them into a knot that was more people and less space. Spencer seemed to be hanging in there but Caroline was losing it. "Just keep breathing, okay."

"He did this deliberately." Caroline said. She looked near tears.

"Okay, I want to help you but I need to know exactly what you're feeling." Tara said. "Are either of you afraid for any reason, Spencer, instincts going off, anything like that..." Spencer looked around the lobby, then shook his head. So did Caroline. "Okay, how about anger..."

"Yeah, at my brother." Caroline said.

"Honestly, enough to trigger Ellen to come out?"

"No." Caroline looked uncomfortable with the question but carried on. "She only comes out to protect me."

"Okay, how about anxiety?"

They both considered this, and maybe... "I...just don't belong here." Caroline said.

"Okay, why not?"

"People like this don't like people like us." Caroline said. "They don't want us in their spaces."

"How do you know?"

"They said so."

"What did they say?"

The two of them spent the next five minutes shooting off a host of insults, a litany of name calling that stung even Morgan who was just observing. "So a bunch of kids called you names..."

"Those were from my father." Spencer replied. "And some of his friends."

"And my mother." Caroline said. "And other adults around her. Usually in places a lot like this."

Morgan opened his mouth to say something, considered his beloved mother calling him a dirty fat pig in a place like this, and closed it again. "Never mind."

"I get it." Tara nodded. "I understand. Down here, in a place like this or in Las Vegas in general, you expect to be emotionally and verbally attacked, based on past experiences. It can happen at any time, so you always have to keep your guard up. You don't know how to act to keep that from happening because nothing ever worked and because your parents were the prime bullies there was no safe haven anywhere. On top of that your parents had a great deal of influence, if for different reasons, so they likely manipulated other adults into bullying you as well. After all, if they do it themselves then they're the outlier but if they can get one other peer to join in then they're just repeating accepted reality. So you feel out of place, alienated and afraid all the time, like your feelings don't matter and your needs will never be met. Being from another time and somehow landing here is a perfectly valid way for a child to explain those emotions. But up on the mountain it's different. You're the grandson of the beloved sheriff and successful in your own right and everyone knows it. And you're the granddaughter of the town's most generous patron, who never had a hard word for anyone." They looked at each other and nodded. "Up there you can relax and be yourself and not only do people treat you with basic respect they even offer you friendship. I can understand how hard it would be to go from there to here."

"So you're saying we're not crazy." Caroline said.

"Nope. Your reactions are perfectly understandable and reasonable." Tara smiled as they both relaxed a little just from hearing that.

"Yeah but Reid, you're an FBI agent now." Morgan said. "People respect that."

"Are you kidding?" Spencer replied. "Fellow agents are some of the biggest bullies. I can't tell you how many times I've been told that you only keep me around for my brains, that I'm useless otherwise. I've even heard them say that if I was transferred to their team I'd have to worry about...about friendly fire so they wouldn't have to work with me."

Oh hell. "Why didn't you ever say anything?" Morgan asked. Granted now he was also feeling guilty. How many times had he teased or made fun of his little brother, never meaning to be cruel, but not realizing just how battered that place was for Spencer, and how that might make his actions abusive.

Spencer gave him an honestly confused look. "Why?"

"Learned helplessness." Tara said.

"It's not like anyone ever stopped doing it." Caroline said. "It gets worse if you fight back."

Spencer looked over at her. "I'll fight them for you."

"Really?" He nodded and she went all over misty.

Morgan looked up as a couple of guys in the lobby looked at the ill-dressed couple and snickered to each other. Now that he was starting to see the world through his little brother's eyes it was a minefield. "Look, let's just get upstairs." He said to Tara. "Deal with this more up there."

"Sounds like a plan to me."


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

 **The Cosmopolitan  
Las Vegas, NV**

 **Day 07**

Turned out they had a penthouse suite. One which came with its own elevator. Handy for posting guards, which they had. But even in the elevator Caroline still seemed nervous. "What's wrong?" Spencer asked.

"This is all too much." She replied. "It means Tom is likely on his way."

"Of course." Rossi said. "He loves you."

"While he likely does love his sister, I believe Tom suffers from a bad case of fleas." Spencer said.

"I assume you don't mean insects." Morgan said.

"Actually it's a reference to the term 'if you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas'." Tara replied. "It's not unusual for siblings of a victim of emotional abuse to perpetuate the abuse toward the victim. Not because they want to abuse them but because they learned from their parents that that is the best way to treat said victim. So his intentions might be good but he might still be perpetuating the abuse."

Caroline nodded. "He's coming to tell me to stop acting crazy."

"How does he define crazy?" Morgan asked.

"It's easier to define not crazy. Not crazy means living the life of the ideal career woman. Focused on work to the exclusion of everything else, like hobbies or outside interest or a social life. You go to the gym, go to work, come home, eat small amounts of take out from social approved restaurants, watch the most popular TV shows, read books off the best sellers list, dress in conservative forms of the latest fashions, surround yourself with everything sleek and modern, and never refer to the past or be emotional about anything. Anything outside of that is crazy."

"That explains your apartment." Rossi said. "We were looking for you, it's part of the standard investigation."

"I understand. I don't really care." Caroline replied.

"Why don't you just tell them no?" Morgan asked. "You're a grown woman, you're in charge of your own life."

"It's not that simple, unfortunately."

Morgan went to say something but he caught sight of Spencer shaking his head and stopped.

"So you don't consider yourself a career woman?" Tara asked.

"No, I actually enjoy the work that I do. Teaching that is and I do like Georgetown, but I don't really need to work full time. Relationships are more important than making scads of money to me. And I kind of like going to the gym, if nothing else it helps keep Ellen under control. But otherwise..." She smiled. "I like to wear long skirts and cowboy boots, eat barbeque, listen to the radio and read non-fiction. There are a number of hobbies I've wanted to learn. And I am in therapy and not ashamed to admit it."

"You sound completely insane." Tara said in a perfect deadpan.

"Don't I?" Caroline replied with a laugh. "But as long as he's pulling the financial strings I've had to stay split. I can't be Sara all the time, I get...it's just..."

"Dr. Hartman said Sara was clinically depressed." Spencer said. "Thankfully antidepressants are contraindicated for DID."

"But as Caroline I'm fine. At least I feel fine."

"I can see that." Tara said. "Where do you...um...does Caroline live?"

"Nowhere. I used to just wander a lot when I had to be Caroline. I'd go back to Sara's apartment to sleep and wake up as her." Caroline shuddered slightly.

"That explains the map Dr. Hartman had." Tara moved with them into the penthouse proper.

It was nearly a black box. Dark charcoal walls, dark charcoal furniture, grey carpet over dark grey-brown wood, black drapes. Even with the lights on full blast it seemed dim. The darkness of the place served to highlight the Vegas skyline outside the windows, the neon glittered like gems on velvet. It also served to highlight the artwork, stylized photographs of nudes in various sexual situations. And the simply enormous TV would be crystal clear. The only bright spots in the rooms were the white sheets. "Welcome to my brother's world, everyone." Caroline said.

"And this is supposed to help someone with DID and depression how?" Morgan asked.

"It's not." Tara replied. "It's supposed to keep them sick. Tom is convinced that sick is actually healthy."

They all turned their heads at the sound of a commotion outside. A moment later Tom Peabody burst in. "Wow Tom." Caroline said. "That was quick."

"I was in San Francisco. Sara..."

"Caroline."

"No. Your name is Sara. And what..." He squinted at her. "What are you wearing? You look like a hobo."

Caroline looked down at herself. She was wearing jeans, a long denim skirt, and an embroidered, western-style shirt open over a solid tank. While you might question her taste and while it was casual it was all neat and clean, her hair was clean and loosely braided and her face was scrubbed if without make-up. "Hardly." She replied.

"You look like a crazy person! Go change and stop this nonsense, you're embarrassing yourself Sara." He was clearly agitated, now he turned to the others in the room and smiled like he was trying to get control of the situation.

"Caroline and no, I'm not going to go change. I'm not the one acting embarrassing here. I told you on the phone that I was safe and in good company, that I was seeing a doctor tomorrow and that I would contact you when I got to DC tomorrow night. There was no reason to come storming out here."

"No reason! You're acting insane!"

"No, I'd say I'm about 95% sane at the moment."

"Sara..."

"Caroline."

Tom groaned. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"I'm not doing anything to you. This isn't about you."

"Are you planning to punish me for the rest of my life?!"

"This is not about you."

"If you just stop acting this way you could be healthy!"

"I'm getting healthy, Tom. I'm happy the way I am."

"Sara..."

"Caroline."

He had clearly had enough. "You know what? Fine! Mother was right, if you want to keep acting like a crazy person then you can just go live on the street with the crazy people. Or else acknowledge your real name, go change and come back to DC with me. Now!"

Caroline stepped back and eyed her brother. "I quit."

"What?"

"I quit, Tom. I'm not working for you anymore. You can keep your money, you can keep your condo and if you can convince the board of regents to fire me you can keep my teaching job at Georgetown too."

"Sara..."

"You can't by my sanity or my silence anymore Tom! I'd rather live on the streets and be sane than put up with this family's bullshit anymore!"

"Sara!"

"No Tom! I'm done! I'm done with you, I'm done with our family. I'm done with Project Starlight, I'm done with all of it! And my name is Caroline!"

In response her brother slapped her.

Spencer, who had been leaning against the bar listening to all of this, moved. He took one long step, pulled Caroline behind him and loomed over her brother. Spencer Reid would never resort to violence, but his body language suggested that the lingering remains of Charlie Sharon might not have a problem throwing a punch.

"Oh! Ho! That's enough!" Morgan got to Tom and pulled him back while Tara got between him and the couple.

"Get your hands off me!" Tom pulled away and shrugged his suit jacket straight.

Caroline stood there a long moment, her eyes closed, her hand on her cheek, her breathing too fast and too hard. Without another word she spun on her heel and went to the bedroom. Spencer hurried after her, but he didn't close the door.

Tom stood for a moment, gathered himself, straightened his jacket and turned to the group with a professional smile. "I have to apologize for my sister, she's...not well."

"Your sister is fine." Rossi said. "You're the one acting inappropriately."

Tom looked at all of them. "My sister..."

"We get it." Morgan said. "Your mom always blamed everything on your sister, saying it was because she was a bad kid or because she was sick or both. Now you're doing it out of habit."

"The thing is." Tara continued. "Your sister's illness is under control. Perhaps even in remission. That's a good thing."

Tom gawped at her. "How can you say _that_ is a good thing?"

"Because one personality is becoming dominant. And that personality is healthy and stable. In time all her other personalities will fold into that one and she'll go into remission."

"But that's not Sara!"

"And that's okay; she doesn't have to go back to her original personality. As long as the one that dominates is well-adjusted and stable she should be fine."

"No! That is...that is not acceptable! She needs to be Sara!"

"No, she doesn't. And if your mother insisted upon that she was likely...misinformed."

"You...you're a psychologist, yes?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"Then go in there and make her be Sara!"

"No, I'm not going to do that."

Tom looked at the three of them. "Look, I pay the bills around here! You like this, this living in the penthouse, cars, expense accounts, living the life, then you do what I tell you! That is Sara and you treat her as such!"

"Is that how this works?" Morgan asked. "You keep her isolated, surround her with your employees, blackmail them into treating her the way your mother wanted her treated?"

"Of course she works for him." Tara continued. "He likely has access to her financial accounts, when you are bringing that kind of money into a financial institution they're more likely to do you favors like that. He has control over her credit, he owns her condo and a healthy donation to the school would likely get the board of regents at Georgetown on his side."

"Yeah." Rossi said. "You have her tied up in a neat little knot, don't you? Just like your parents did. When you threaten to put her out on the street unless her behavior conforms to your ideal you mean it."

Tom smiled. "Now you understand. I know that it's not her fault but our family will not be embarrassed by that...mistake. Now fix this!"

"I will." Rossi said. But he didn't go to the bedroom. Instead he picked up the house phone. "Front desk? Yes, this is SSA Dave Rossi, in the west penthouse. We'll be taking the east penthouse after all, could you send someone up to help us move over there? Yes, on my credit card. And I would like a note put on the account, no one gets a key or entry to the east penthouse unless they show FBI identification. Thank you." He hung up the phone and turned to where Tom was standing staring at him. "What? You're not the only guy with money in the world. Or power for that matter." He moved to the front door and spoke to the guards on duty. "Would you gentlemen please escort Mr. Peabody out? He can have the room once we move on."

"Wait! No! You can't..." But two agents came in and hustled Tom out of there.

Just then Morgan got a text. He shared it with the others. It was from Spencer in the other room. _Ellen didn't come out._

"That's a good sign." Tara said.

"Can you really afford this?" Morgan asked.

"I wouldn't have if I couldn't. Besides, I want to see Cruz's face when I put in for reimbursement. I would suggest changing hotels but the security here is excellent. I just hope the east penthouse isn't a black pit."

There was movement behind them. They turned to see Caroline edging her way out into the room, Spencer right behind her. "You...you really threw Tom out?"

"Yes, we did." Rossi replied. "You two need to gather your things, we're moving to another room. One Tom is not paying for."

She shook her head in bewilderment. "No one ever stands up to my family. My mother..."

"Was dominating and cruel and used her money and power to get her way. We get that. Just because no one has in the past where you've seen it, that doesn't mean that they can't or won't in the future." Tara replied. "Come on, I'll help." She herded Caroline back to pack up.

"Thank you." Spencer said once his girl was out of the room again. "Her need to untangle from her family has been the biggest issue hampering her recovery. I was going to try to figure out a solution when we got home, I wanted to get through tomorrow first."

"Don't worry kid." Morgan said. "We'll figure something out. Savannah and I have a guest room."

"So do I." Tara replied.

"Actually." Rossi said. "I think I have a better solution."


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

 **The Cosmopolitan  
Las Vegas, NV**

 **Day 07**

As it turned out the east penthouse was not a black pit. It was just as sleek and modern but it was done in light fabrics and warm wood. Rossi had them remove the nude photography and replace it with anything else, which turned out to be a collection of brightly colored abstracts. Once that was done they collectively settled in for the evening.

Spencer took their bags to the master bedroom. It was the first real chance he'd had to be alone all day, and he just wanted to sit for a few. Or flop back on the bed for a few. But Morgan followed him, of course. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Spencer thought he was, mostly. It was just...

"Sure? Should I have brought your pipe?"

"What?" Oh, right, they went through his apartment. "No, that's..." Wait a minute... "Actually now that everything's out there you might be able to help me with that. Granted it's kind of..."

"Kid, I won't embarrass you over any of this, okay? You didn't start this."

Yeah, but this was still hard. "Dr. Joseph Bell was the real-life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes..."

"Got that."

"He smoked a pipe to relax."

"Okay, so it's Joseph's?"

"He was also an opiate user."

It took a moment but Morgan got it. "Ah. You know, that didn't seem like you."

"Yeah, no. But getting that under control got the DID under control, for a while at least. I keep the pipe around so he'll go for that first if I can't shake him, the coughing fit should kick me out of it. If not and you catch me with it..."

"You need help."

"Before I need help." Because Joseph was much more likely to relapse.

"Got it."

"Thank you. But that hasn't been a problem for years. Right now..."

"Charlie?"

"Yeah. And a lot of memories I never knew I had."

"Hopefully mostly good ones."

"Nearly all. I mean, he's lost a few people over the years, but pretty much all of them to age, except Maeve..." Which still hurt no matter which side of his brain he was on.

"I can understand that."

"But otherwise...Charlie has had a lot of fun over the years. I mean, all stuff that he...I would be teased or bullied about in Vegas. Or at CalTech. Or possibly in DC..."

"No more of that. We don't care." Morgan looked at him a long moment. "So what kind of vices is Charlie into?"

That was exactly what Spencer was thinking about. Those were some amazing memories; he could understand why it hurt too much to take them off the mountain with him. But now... "I love Caroline."

"I know."

"I mean I'm planning on marrying her."

"What happened to baby steps?"

"Yeah, if I'm remembering correctly we jumped well past that." Morgan started chuckling. Spencer grinned. "I'm just saying that I love Caroline so I won't but there's a club about a mile from here where I bet I could get more phone numbers than you could."

"Bullshit."

"No, really. Charlie was actually remarkably skilled at what you would call game."

"I don't believe it." By now Morgan was laughing.

"We used to have these bonfires in the desert after meets, back when I was, well, when I should have been in high school..."

"I can guess what you did at those bonfires."

"It never got that far..."

"Oh yeah? How far did it get?" Morgan asked.

Spencer didn't answer. He was too busy remembering Mindy...Mindy Dunson, that's right. She'd been competing for rodeo queen and had come in...sec...third and wore a remarkably interesting bra and...was he blushing? "Never mind how far it got."

Morgan was laughing like he would hurt something. "You know that's called normal."

"Yeah, I know that now. Charlie was a normal kid. I...I had a group of friends I hung around with, none of them close, but still. We'd spend all day on horseback and then go...flirt with the girls...it was just normal."

"Yeah. I did the same thing at that age. Except football, not horses, but the idea is there. I mean, cheerleaders..."

"We competed alongside girls."

"Same idea."

"Yeah. But then I'd come down the mountain and I was the biggest, nerdiest freak, everyone's favorite target. I couldn't go out and make friends because of Mom, I somehow managed to become ugly on the trip down, I wasn't at all athletic. It was like throwing a switch."

"No wonder you became two people."

"Yeah. Now I just have to figure out how to bring Charlie back to DC with me. I miss all of that, now that I remember it. I miss...feeling a part of something, of a community, and being able to relax like that and..."

"Girls?"

Spencer looked over at the big glass doors that lead onto the balcony. Caroline was out there, talking with Tara about what had happened with Tom. "Got that covered." Morgan started chuckling. Spencer grinned. He vaguely remembered them doing...now he had to wonder what her lingerie drawer looked like. Anyway. "Actually I miss riding. Being able to get outdoors. It's more of a workout than you might realize..."

"Sitting on a horse?"

"Wait until tomorrow morning. Granted I'll be there as well. I am woefully out of shape."

"Sounds like I may have to try this." Morgan said.

Spencer grinned. "Now we have to find a stable. Outside of that...I don't know what I'm going to do."

Morgan sobered. "Going to stay with the Bureau?"

"Absolutely, if they'll have me. If nothing else I think I would lose my mind from boredom in any other job. I might take a few weeks off to sort everything else out though. I have leave time on the books."

"That's all right."

* * *

In the meantime Tara and Caroline were outside, talking. "The first step to enslaving someone is to convince yourself they are subhuman." Tara said. "The second step is to surround yourself with those you have convinced, and who agree with you the one you wish to enslave is subhuman. The final step is to convince the slave themselves that they are subhuman, and are deserving of their treatment. Your mother was the first to convince herself. In the process she convinced your brother. Now he's convinced everyone around you using money as leverage."

"But I'm no longer convinced of that." Caroline replied. "And it's not all because of Spencer. Dr. Hartman and the support group have been a huge part of this."

"The slave is rebelling. That's bound to shake up his confidence."

"Yes, but..." Caroline looked out over the Las Vegas skyline and sighed. "Some days I still believe it. That I really am out of time."

"There's a term that might apply here. Hiraeth. It's Welsh, it means a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that never was."

Caroline thought for a long moment. "Yes. That's it, that's it exactly. Now I have to figure out how to overcome that. And please don't say grieve, that's not good enough. It never has been."

"No, you have to create something now that will satisfy that need within you. Only once you have that in the presence can you grieve that absence in the past where it belonged. But you can't do that when your brother is still sabotaging your efforts."

"Yeah, but how? I don't even know how to start."

"Start with freedom, then go from there."

* * *

The east penthouse came with a small office space. Which gave Hotch some private space to work. "She said she was quitting Project Starlight?" Said a voice on the other side of his phone.

"Yes she did." Hotch replied.

"Think she meant it?"

"I don't think so Tony. I think it was said in the heat of the moment. I believe her intent is to sever ties with Peabody Engineering, and all other ties with her family, which would include her ceasing work on Project Starlight."

"That is not acceptable. If we helped her sever those ties what are the chances of her coming back to work for us as an independent contractor?"

Hotch and Rossi looked at each other and smiled.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

 **The Cosmopolitan  
Las Vegas, NV**

 **Day 07**

When Caroline and Tara came in Hotch stopped them. "If hypothetically the NSA would want to hire you as an independent contractor to work on Project Starlight and as part of that they would be willing to help you dissolve your relationship with Peabody Engineering, what do you think that would entail?"

"Hypothetically?"

"They wouldn't be willing to extend a formal offer until you were pronounced competent by a medical professional."

"Hypothetically?" Caroline didn't have to think for too long. "Move whatever funds are legally mine to accounts my brother cannot access. Detach our credit histories. Help me sell my condo so I can buy one in a different location. Reevaluate my security needs and have them met by an independent contractor with no ties to my brother. Make certain my brother cannot contact me for at least three months, preferably six. And if they could arrange for the rest of the semester off. All of that and some kind of fair payment for the work. Think they could do that?"

"The NSA?" Hotch turned and shut the door to the office again.

The two women moved to the living room only to find JJ and Spencer pummeling Morgan with couch pillows. "What did you do?" Tara asked.

"I suggested a western!" Morgan replied, laughing.

While JJ and Morgan continued debating movies Tara moved to the tall table, set up like a buffet courtesy of Rossi. Pizza was the main course. As she was making a plate she looked over Spencer's shoulder. He had borrowed someone's laptop and was fiddling with the music files on his phone. "Country?"

"Seriously?" Morgan said, picking up Spencer's phone.

Spencer opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and got a distant look in his eye. "What?" Tara said.

"There are two competing ways I want to react to that." He replied.

"What are they?"

"The first is embarrassment at liking something not commonly enjoyed by my peer group, or by someone with my educational background, and perhaps fear that I'm about to be teased or shamed for enjoying something less than popular. The best way to react to that would be to retreat, put everything away and wait for it to be over."

"Not exactly healthy. What's the second?"

"To point out to Morgan that it's not his phone." This appeared to be the chosen reaction as he pulled his phone back and swatted the other man's hands out of the way.

"Healthier." Tara replied.

"You are never playing that in my car!" Morgan said. But he was grinning.

"I could say something about what you listen to in your car." Spencer replied. But he was grinning right back.

"Oh yeah?"

"Boys!" JJ really could nail that maternal tone. "We're picking a movie here."

While the debate continued Caroline came over and snugged in between Spencer and the arm of the couch. "Do mine next?" She asked, offering her phone.

"Absolutely."

* * *

After the movie everyone went to bed. "I'm, um, I don't..." All of a sudden Spencer was insanely nervous.

"You don't?" Caroline asked as she moved around the bed.

He'd wanted to room with her to be alone with her, a chance to talk in private if nothing else. But now he had to wonder about her expectations. "I don't remember if we...did we...?"

"You don't remember last night." She realized. She walked up to him and draped her arms around his shoulders.

"No. Did we?"

"Three times."

"Oh." Son of a bitch! Of all the memories not to retain! "Do you want to again?"

In reply she stretched up on her toes and kissed him.

Spencer was glad he was absorbing what Charlie knew. Because he knew to thread his fingers in his hair and deepen that kiss and scoop her up in his arms and take her off to the bed.

Healthy was going to be wonderful.

* * *

"Ow!" Morgan said as he moved to the little kitchen space the next morning.

"Why are you walking like a cowboy?" Tara asked.

"Delayed onset muscle soreness." JJ replied for him.

"I had no idea!" Morgan replied. "I thought I was just sitting on that horse!"

"Looks like you found a new workout challenge." JJ said.

"No kidding."

They were all quietly chuckling when Spencer came out with the same sore shuffle. "Ow." He said as he went for the coffee.

"What's your excuse?" Morgan asked. "You've done this before."

"Yeah, but I haven't done any agility work since I was seventeen." Spencer replied. "So out of shape."

Hotch and Rossi joined them. "How is everyone this morning?" Hotch asked.

"It looks like Spencer Reid." JJ said. "It sounds like Spencer Reid. But it is drinking black coffee."

"Still?" Morgan replied. "This is just not right."

Spencer just shrugged.

It got even less right as they packed to go. They'd brought Spencer's go-bag, so it did indeed look like him, minus the tie for being off duty, but on the way out... "Again with the hat?" Morgan asked.

"I like the hats!" Spencer protested. "This is not an inappropriate setting for a hat. It's Vegas, there's sun."

"Riiight."

* * *

 **Bennington Sanitarium  
Las Vegas, NV**

Spencer was willing to acknowledge that his family had a genetic predisposition to mental illness. A comprehensive psychological evaluation had to include evaluating for that illness. Given that they were so close it only made logical sense to include the clinician with the most experience in dealing with his family's medical history in that evaluation.

A proper, thorough psychological evaluation takes hours, so it was after lunch when the team assembled in the conference room at the hospital. Given that they all had to work with him and they all would someday trust their lives to them he wanted them all to hear the results. And Caroline insisted she had nothing to hide. "Complete remission." Dr. Norman pronounced. "Granted it's recent, he's still processing through the ramifications, but I would call the prognosis for the future excellent."

"Competent?" Hotch asked.

"Absolutely."

"Able to return to the field?"

"I'd give it a few weeks, a month if you can manage it. As I said, recent. He could use a little time to process through this change. But in time I don't see why not."

"You said remission, that means the potential for a relapse?"

"Given the work that you do should he experience another instance of prolonged captivity I would recommend an evaluation by a professional thoroughly familiar with the issue before letting him return to the field."

Right. In case of another Hankle get Spencer's brains thoroughly checked out before he comes back to work. Don't make the same mistake as last time. "We can do that. What about Dr. Peabody?"

"I would call her stable." Dr. Bhatia replied. "I cannot say complete remission because she has one personality in addition to the dominant primary remaining. But we were able to speak with that personality today. As I understand it this represents a breakthrough."

"We were able to interview Ellen about what happened in the warehouse." Tara said. She'd sat in on Caroline's evaluation, hoping for just this chance. "Our read of the situation was accurate, she heard the shot, thought Spencer was injured, and fought to come to his aid. Ellen is neither delusional nor psychopathic, she is extremely rational and in control of her emotions. Sara and Caroline had to keep seeing the adults around her as adults deserving of respect in order to function on a social level. Ellen describes them as monsters and according to her when a monster only knows how to communicate with violence you have to be violent to be understood, but Sara and Caroline are incapable of that level of violence so when needed she takes over."

"She has a point." Rossi said. "Can she be helped with that?"

"Yes. Especially now that we can contact both personalities. But it will take time." Dr. Bhatia replied. "In the meantime she is stable, and competent enough to manage her own affairs. I recommend ongoing outpatient treatment."

"I believe we can help with that." Rossi replied.

Soon enough Spencer and Caroline rejoined the group. "What did they say?" He asked.

"You're going to be all right. Both of you." Hotch replied.

"Do I...um..." Spencer was so very nervous.

"Have a job?" That was the big question, wasn't it? "Yes." Hotch replied. "But you get a month's medical leave and a reevaluation before you come back."

"A month!" Spencer replied. "I thought I only needed two weeks!"

"Do not argue."

"Take some time off Spence." JJ said. "Enjoy it."

"Do you have any idea how bored I'm going to be?"

They laughed with him, of course. "And I believe you will have a job offer waiting for you when we return to DC." Hotch said to Caroline.

"Wonderful." She replied with a smile. She looked more tired than Spencer did, but she was rallying. "When do we leave?"

"Now."

* * *

.

* * *

I apologize for the delay in posting and regret to say that it will likely continue until the end of the week. We've been dealing with some health issues in my family.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

 **Day 08**

The flight back was uneventful. Apparently Caroline really did tend to sleep in moving vehicles; she slept most of the trip just like she had on the flight from Reno to Vegas. Everyone else listened to music, read, caught up on paperwork, and did whatever else they did on flights.

When they landed Caroline looked at her phone. "Twenty-three voicemails." She said. "All from my brother. I guess the NSA called him."

"A reasonable, normal response from a brother would be concern for your health and a desire to know what he has to do to rectify your relationship." Tara said. "A reasonable, normal response from a businessman would be to attempt to start negotiations to keep you with his company."

Caroline played one of the voicemails at random. _Sara this is crazy! You have no idea what you're doing! I don't know what quack called you competent! Mother was right!_

"And that would be neither." Tara said.

"We really need space." Caroline replied.

"Yes, you do."

"The problem is that I'm about to sign a contract and I don't have a lawyer."

"Hotch is a lawyer."

"But he works for the government. Conflict of interest?"

"Yeah, but he doesn't work for the NSA. His first priority is keeping his team healthy and strong and that includes the people they have relationships with."

Caroline considered this and went to talk to Hotch.

When they reached the office there were men in suits waiting in the conference room. Hotch asked them to wait a few moments, and asked Caroline to wait at JJ's desk. "Reid, do you still have that Glock I gave you?"

"Yeah." Spencer found it where he left it when he left work that day.

"Come on." They went to Hotch's office. "Technically because you're out on a psychiatric matter I'm supposed to keep your primary weapon." He looked down at the Glock. "That is your primary, yes?"

Spencer was about to say no, it was his backup, but Hotch was giving him one of those looks so he hesitantly nodded.

"In that case," Hotch took the Glock and locked it in his desk. "I am officially holding your primary until you are cleared to return to work." And he passed the gun he'd taken from his drawer over to Spencer.

Spencer looked at it with a smile. It was a Smith & Wesson Model 65 revolver with a three-inch barrel and wood-colored grips. Just the sort of thing an old western sheriff might have carried throughout his career, and might have passed down to a dearly loved grandson. "Thank you."

"Of course." Hotch actually smiled. "Now I have to keep your girlfriend from being eaten alive by the wolves in there. Excuse me."

Spencer moved back to the bullpen as Caroline and Hotch joined the men in the conference room. "All right." Rossi said. "Now I have to prove a theory. Come on."

* * *

 **Shooting range  
FBI Academy**

"So what is this theory?" Morgan asked as they all assembled in a corner of the range where they would be out of the way.

"I've been trying to figure out how someone who can't hit the side of a barn could win the Northern Nevada Junior Cowboy Sharpshooters competition five times." Rossi replied. "I think the answer is muscle memory." He'd been loading a clip with five rounds, now he handed it to Morgan. "Best grouping you can give me, please."

Morgan shrugged, adjusted his safety gear and stepped up to the line. He faced the target at an angle with his feet diagonal to each other, shoulder width apart, and toes facing forward. His non-dominant leg was positioned forward of his dominant leg, with his weight balanced between rear and front legs. His arms are bent with his firing arm slightly straighter than his support arm, and the elbows of both arms pointed downward. He quickly fired five rounds, and then pulled the target in. All five rounds had neatly grouped the center.

"What shooting stance were you using?"

"Weaver." Morgan replied.

"Why?"

"That's what they taught me at the Academy."

"Fair enough. Okay, now JJ." Rossi said.

She faced the target at an angle with her feet diagonal to each other, shoulder width apart, and toes facing forward. Her non-dominant leg was positioned forward of her dominant leg, with her weight balanced between rear and front legs. Her firing arm was straight, her supporting arm bent. Again she fired off five rounds quickly. Her shots were not as tightly grouped as Morgan's but they were more than acceptable.

"What shooting stance were you using?" Rossi asked again.

"Chapman." JJ replied.

"Why?"

"That's what they taught me at the Academy."

"For the record both stances have similar positives, stability, control on target, absorbing recoil and if you're rushed by the target it's harder for them to disarm you. Chapman is a little better for women because it adds in some core strength to compensate for lower upper body strength in exchange for a little bit of accuracy, but not much. Your turn." Rossi said to Spencer.

Spencer took his turn at the line. He used the same stance as Morgan but unlike the others it didn't look graceful or natural on him. He looked awkward and uncoordinated, fired very slowly, and his shots landed all over the target.

"What shooting stance were you using?"

"Weaver." Spencer replied.

"Why?"

"That's what they taught me at the Academy. Tried to teach me at the Academy."

"You learned to shoot at the Academy?"

"Yeah."

"But this doesn't work for you."

"It never felt natural." Spencer huffed in frustration. "It never felt right. I don't know how to explain it."

"I think I understand. Let me ask you another question, most in law enforcement carry a semi-automatic on their hip. You're carrying a revolver in an appendix carry. Why?"

"It was my Grandfather's revolver, the one he carried on duty. And it just...feels more comfortable. I don't know."

"And are you sure, absolutely _certain_ , you never lost time at CalTech? Not even a couple of hours here and there during the week?"

Spencer opened his mouth to answer but closed it again.

"Thing is you first won Northern Nevada Junior Cowboy Sharpshooters competition in 1981." Rossi said. "If my math is correct you were eight. Which means you learned to shoot well before you entered the Academy at twenty-one. And you may well have practiced in college without realizing it."

"So why can't I shoot now?"

"Because at heart your grandfather was a cowboy. In cowboy action shooting they use revolvers for handgun tournaments, and shoot dueling style, quick-draw from an appendix carry into the bull's-eye stance." Rossi demonstrated. He moved his holster to the right front of his hip, turned so he was perpendicular to the target, drew quickly, and pointed straight downrange one handed.

"Let me try that." Morgan stepped up to the line and mirrored Rossi's movements, shooting downrange one-handed. When he pulled the target in he was all over the map. "That just does not feel stable."

"You're actually supposed to turn your hips and feet slightly off perpendicular, lean back a little to balance your center of gravity and tighten your other arm for stability. Now how do I know that?!" Spencer said.

"You try it." Rossi said. "But try not to think too hard. As strange as it sounds see if you can let Charlie do it."

Spencer reloaded and stepped up to the counter. This time he started with his weapon in the holster. He quickly drew, pivoted and fired five shots downrange as quickly as the others had the first time, only he did it one-handed to the side. This time when the target came back his grouping was tighter than Morgan's.

"Oh my god." JJ said as Morgan started laughing.

Rossi chuckled. "The reason why it never felt natural or right is because you were trying to undo fifteen years of muscle memory." He said. "Your grandfather made you into such a good cowboy shooter that you couldn't become a good cop shooter."

"That..." He got that far away look like he was remembering. "...is exactly what happened. But what is Hotch going to say?" Spencer asked. "I mean, this is hardly regulation."

"I would be surprised if Hotch gave a damn." Rossi replied. "What matters in the field is accuracy. The only problem is that you'll need a custom vest, off the rack ballistics vests expose too much of the armpit to be safe with that stance. You'll lose some freedom of movement but that really matters in hand-to-hand and if you're fighting we have bigger issues."

"I have to use a custom vest anyway." Spencer said. "They don't come off the rack in a 28 inch waist."

"I need to feed you more." Rossi replied. "Now." He went and picked up the long gun case on the table. "I saw John Wayne use one of these in _True Grit_ back in 1969. Chuck Connors used something similar on _The Rifleman_. I have got to see it in person. Please."

"It's too flashy!" Spencer protested.

"Please."

"It's too..."

"Aw, come on Spence." JJ said, giving him the puppy dog eyes.

Spencer gave a long, deep, put upon sigh and pulled Grandpa Orville's horse gun from the sheath. "Give me a little room." He said as he stepped up to the line once more.

"Is that a 12 gauge?" Rossi asked. "I thought those came in 10 gauge originally."

"It is. This is actually a custom piece based on the antique design. He wanted a more common gauge and the 10 was too hard to control." Once again Spencer turned almost sideways to the target, held the weapon out in one hand, let it brace against his arm, and fired.

Then he spin cocked it using the leaver on the bottom, and fired again.

After three more he stopped and shook his arm out. "I am so out of shape." He said.

"We can work on that." Morgan said.

"Why one handed?" JJ asked.

"Other hand drives the horse." Morgan replied. "I saw him do it."

"That set screw though." Rossi said. "When I saw that I thought of those dirty cops we went after a few years back."

"Oh?" JJ asked.

"Yeah. Not sure it's legal but we can work around that. Why don't you both get up there." He said to Spencer and Morgan. "Empty as fast as you can."

They both stepped up to the line, Morgan with his pistol, Spencer with that shotgun after he adjusted the set screw. As soon as Rossi said go they started firing to empty. Spencer got his seven rounds down as quickly as Morgan got fifteen, every time he flipped the leaver to cock the gun that screw hit the trigger and fired again, making as close to a semi-auto as could be. When they were finished the two men looked at the havoc they had wrought. The effect was devastating.

"That was your grandfather's." Rossi said, once the smoke cleared. "Are you willing to take it into the field?"

"I'd honestly rather not." Spencer replied. "It's kind of a family heirloom now."

"Think the gunsmith here could make a copy?"

"Very likely."

"Good. Tell him to put it on my tab. Hush." Rossi said when Spencer was about to object. "It's good to know we have that capability within the team. If we need it I'd rather have it and not need it than not have it and need it someday. So get it done and I'll go pray that we never need it."

JJ nodded. "Amen"

* * *

.

* * *

Thank you all for your patience. I should be back on a regular posting schedule.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

 **Day 08**

On the way back the next problem cane from an entirely unexpected source. "What do you mean you're getting married?" Garcia asked.

"Well, we love each other, we _understand_ each other, and we want to keep having adventures together, even everyday ones. So, yeah, marriage." Spencer sat in the chair in her office and cradled his cup of coffee well away from her computers.

"But you've only gone out a few times! You were just asking about kissing her good-night! This is...this is huge!"

"Well, Charlie moves faster." That was meant as a joke, but Garcia missed it. "Caroline and I have known each other for just over two years now. We've been friends for a long time; we just recently each felt like trying to go further. And as it turns out that's working really well for us."

"Two years? But you didn't say anything because of the context. Okay, I can see that."

"And when we met I was coming to terms with this and still mourning Maeve. Caroline was coping with a recent move and her mother's death. Neither of us was ready for more than friendship at the time, but we were...I don't know...drawn to each other. We've been there for each other for a lot. So, yeah. We want this. This doesn't mean we're eloping, we haven't even thought of a date or anything..."

"Okay. Okay, that's better. That's more like going steady or something."

"Possibly. Going steady with intent maybe."

"I can go there." Garcia was smiling again. "And she is completely wonderful?"

"I think so. I can't wait for you to meet her. She's interested in some hobbies..."

"Oh this is going to be awesome! Where is she?"

"Still in with Hotch and the NSA."

"I hope that works for her."

"So do I."

* * *

 **Fairmont Hotel  
Washington DC**

As it turned out, it did work for Caroline. More or less.

After some interviews with the "terrorists" they had captured in Nevada the NSA took the step of strongly suggesting that Caroline exchange her brother's security team for full-on protective custody. Spencer didn't get the suggestion part, Hotch ordered him into it. "Not Witness Protection?" Rossi asked.

"They both still need treatment." Hotch replied. "And it should only be a week or so."

So they ended up here. Most in DC didn't know that the 9th floor of the Fairmont was built for high security. It was where the Federal Government stashed heads of state that needed greater security, or perhaps high-profile criminals as they testified, or at times witnesses. Most of the rooms were two bedroom, elegant suites.

A couple of math geeks didn't rate a suite.

It was a nice room though, Morgan thought. More than enough for a few days. It was bigger than your usual hotel room, with a separate seating area, but still one room. They had free run of room service, but some of the items were blocked out. "Kind of a come down from the penthouse." He said to Caroline.

"You know, if being free of my brother means a hotel room instead of a penthouse and baked chicken and potatoes instead of porterhouse and caviar, I'm good with it." She replied. "In fact I'm thrilled!"

"The NSA couldn't sort out your money?"

"They hired me on to work on 'Project Moonlight', which is the same project under a different name. And I'm supposed to get a signing bonus which should cover setting up a new apartment. They also found a law firm willing to work pro bono for now, we're suing my brother to get my money back. Disclosure ought to be fun."

"And I spoke to HR at Georgetown." Spencer said. "They're giving her sabbatical leave for the semester, but she still has a job there."

"So between the two I should be able to support myself." Caroline finished

"Not in the manner you've been accustomed to." Morgan said.

"And I'm okay with that, so long as I can live freely and healthily. "

"All right then. So now what are you two doing?"

"Working on 'Project Moonlight' until Tuesday." Spencer replied.

"What's on Tuesday?"

"Book club."

Morgan sighed. "Try again."

Spencer grinned. "Okay, therapy apartments with Dr. Kaleka, who is taking over for Dr. Hartman, and then support group."

"And you're not going out in between then?"

"Um, I don't think we have anything planned. Rossi said something about dinner."

Morgan grinned. "Let me see what I can do about that."

* * *

 **Quantico Riding Club  
Quantico, VA**

"I didn't even know this was here." Spencer said.

It was allowed, with two guards and Morgan's personal assurance that he wouldn't let anything happen to his little brother, mostly because it was on the military base and so was a controlled situation. "It's open to base personnel only." Morgan said. "But they include the FBI Academy and main building with that. Now they don't usually rent, but they have a few horses here for classes and therapy, all rescues."

"I just..." Spencer sighed. "With our schedule and how we're away so much I wouldn't be able to give a horse what he needs."

"I thought of that." Morgan led him over to one of the pens. "Meet Lucky." A beautiful western quarter horse was wandering over to greet them. "He was a rescue from upstate. He's the only purebred rescue they have here and the only one trained for rodeo work. Apparently they are having trouble getting him enough exercise most days; no one here has that kind of training so they are looking for a volunteer to help out."

"You're kidding me." Spencer said as Lucky stuck his head over the fence and started snuffling all around him, likely for treats.

"Nope. They said you have to provide your own tack, whatever that means, but they'd appreciate the help with him. They think he'd make a great therapy horse if he could work off some excess energy."

"They're likely right. I'll have to get some tack. Hey Lucky..." Spencer reached up to pet a soft, velvet nose. "You bored, huh? Need to run before you start working with the kids?" He sounded so happy.

Morgan just smiled.

* * *

Turned out they had a tack store in nearby Fredericksburg.

The next morning found Morgan, JJ and a couple of the guards using one of the pen fences to stretch out. If this seemed a little weird to them Morgan didn't want to hear it. "You ready?" He called to the building behind him.

"Yep." Spencer came out, easily riding Lucky. He looked happy. Hell, they both did.

"Cool." This place came with forty miles of riding trails, before you got to the restricted ones. Running outdoors was a better workout than indoors any day. The runners started out on one of them, leaving room for the horse to join them.

"We finally get you to work out with us." JJ said.

They laughed their way down the trail.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 26**

 **Quantico Riding Club  
Quantico, VA**

Apparently there was trail riding and then there was this.

On another day Morgan stood leaning on a fence around what he now knew was an arena. He'd just finished moving a lot of heavy objects for the club as a type of workout. It was actually good for your form, work like this helped strengthen your secondary muscles which helped with balance and stability. Now he was watching Spencer set up a series of what looked like plastic pipes set into bases, set at very precise distances from each other. "What are you doing?"

"Setting up a pole bending course."

"And it has to be that precise?"

"If it isn't exactly 48 feet from the center of the mound to the center of the batting box is it still a baseball diamond?"

Ah. "Got it." He looked over at where Lucky was kind of dancing around. "He looks excited."

"It's a play for them, if you do it right." Spencer was apparently happy with the course so he went and climbed on Lucky. "Time me?"

"Sure." There was a stopwatch on the table by the gate. Morgan knew how to time a run. "Ready."

In response Spencer somehow set the horse off.

Morgan timed them as they rode down to the end of the poles, then made a sharp turn and started zigzagging between them. All the way to the end and then sharp turn and all the way back, showing the skills the guys in Virginia City had used to get through a crowded street at high speed. On the way back they tipped two over. After going through in each direction Spencer and Lucky turned and rode back fast as they could. Morgan stopped the watch as soon as they crossed the limit line, and showed Spencer the time when he rode over. "Wow we suck." Spencer said.

"This is your first time together, isn't it?"

"True." He was breathing hard, but Lucky just seemed happier. "Want to go again?" He asked the horse, who tossed his head in reply.

Morgan grinned. "I'll set up the poles for you."

* * *

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

After a few more runs Lucky was turned over to the trainers who did therapy classes. He was no longer as restless as he had been in the morning, and would work quietly with the kids the rest of the day. Spencer and Morgan grabbed their bags with changes of clothing and headed in to the office. "I know you're not working today?"

"Meeting with the NSA rep over the project." Spencer replied. "We're going to meet in the SCIF here, it's more convenient."

First stop was the locker room for showers, of course. And it was there that Morgan realized that they had problems other than terrorists. It wasn't too busy at that hour, but there were a handful of guys changing for work after hitting the gym. And after Spencer headed for the shower one of them leaned over to the other and asked. "Cowboy?"

A few of the men who heard chuckled.

This was going to be a problem.

* * *

While Spencer went off to talk to the NSA math wonks Morgan went to talk to Hotch and the rest of the team, including Cruz. Math was math and work was even work, but Tara decided that discussing the workplace environment was likely too much of a minefield for Spencer to discuss at this point in his recovery. "Math doesn't come with emotions attached." She said.

"Any suggestions for handling this?" Rossi asked.

"What we're looking at here is a case of workplace bullying." She replied. "For the worker in this case there are concrete steps to take. First, check to make sure you are dealing with bullying and not just misunderstanding the workplace culture. I know that cops tend to razz each other, that's usually accepted, but Reid doesn't have a law enforcement background and everyone knows that. Heck, half of the Bureau doesn't."

"Besides, when people start talking friendly fire we've gone well beyond that." JJ said.

"Exactly. Step two is to stand up for yourself and tell the bully to knock it off. Unfortunately Spencer is way too wounded for that, which is one big reason why whoever is doing this is picking on him. He reads as an easy victim. It's going to take quite a bit of time to change that, more time than we have."

"We need to have his back." Morgan said.

"Yes, we do. Step three is to document everything."

"But his memory does that for him." Rossi said.

"Right. Step four is to go to your superiors and/or HR. Which is where we are now." Tara finished.

"What's step five?" JJ asked.

"If all else fails find another job."

"The NSA would gladly take him on." Hotch replied. "I think we'd all like to avoid that."

"What does the literature suggest from the management point of view?" Cruz asked.

"First steps? Sit down with the bully, inform them that there has been a complaint, and tell them to knock it off." Tara replied. "Also inform them that if they retaliate against the complainant that a formal investigation will be instigated and if it proves out _they'll_ be transferred, disciplined or fired, not the victim."

"But first we have to identify the bully." JJ said.

"I think I know how to do that." Cruz replied.

* * *

Cruz's solution was simple. With Garcia's help he started a rumor that a unit was in trouble, no clarification about which one or what kind of trouble, and that when Spencer returned to work he was going to assign him to said unit to help them straighten it out.

It wasn't long before they started sorting out which units were the problem.

One group came to Cruz and said that they didn't think they were having problems but Spencer's reputation for intelligence, synthesis and attention to detail preceded him so they'd be happy to work with him on whatever the issue was. These included Domestic Trafficking, Innocent Images, Financial Crimes, Cyber Crimes, and Civil Rights Crimes among others. Hotch and Cruz were happy to see that it was a long list. They enlisted Katie and Andi to send their people around to listen at water coolers and coffee machines, and they all reported back that yes, the agents in those units felt the same way. No one had any clue what was going on, but they were all willing to work with Spencer.

The other group had a completely different reaction. They didn't know what was going on either but their leadership flat out refused to work with Spencer. Their people wouldn't tolerate it, they said. It was an offence to even consider that someone that geeky, someone with nothing but classroom experience, could help them at all. Those units included Special Weapons, Hostage Rescue, both Organized Crime divisions, Mass Incident, Law Enforcement Coordination... "Ok, we're seeing a pattern here." Tara said as she looked at the board.

"Yeah, every unit that primarily draws from academics or non-traditional sources loves him." JJ replied. "Or at least is curious about him and is willing to work with him."

"But every unit that draws from a traditional source, law enforcement, military, even a lot of athletic experience, isn't." Rossi said. "I guess on some level jocks will always be jocks."

"The problem is that you're looking at a third of the units in this building." Tara said. "You're not going to change the attitude of all those people. And you're not going to be able to ensure that none of those people will retaliate when you call them on it."

"So what do we do?" Cruz asked.

"Normally I would say transfer the bully. Put some physical space between the victim and the bullies, so they don't have to look at each other every day. But these units are spread out all over the building, and a lot of them have custom installations. You're not going to be able to move everyone around."

"We can move your unit." Cruz said.

"Nu uh." Morgan replied. "Garcia. Baby girl works with more than just us. And moving her lair is going to be a major undertaking."

"No." Garcia replied to him. "For my Junior G man it will do this. This is beyond not good here."

"And this might solve another problem I've been dealing with." Cruz said. "Let's make it happen."

* * *

The other problem was simpler in concept but trickier in resolution. "When you're trying to go undercover with human traffickers you need bait." Andi said. "There's no way around it, conventional attractiveness is a factor when I go looking for undercover personnel."

Ashley Seaver nodded in agreement. "No one has ever been _aggressive_ , but I cannot tell you the number of times women in my unit have been hit on around the coffee pot. It gets incredibly annoying. But speaking up hasn't really done anything, they never push it to the point of disciplinary action."

"It's just this constant, wearing problem." Andi agreed.

"My unit doesn't behave that way." Hotch said.

"We've always gotten along well." Andi nodded.

"All right then." Cruz replied. "The BAU will move up one floor, that unit will move down."

This meant Garcia and Kevin swapping lairs, which thankfully only took a day. They both had very similar set ups, it was a question of lift and move and plug back in, which turned out to be less trouble than anyone had anticipated.

Everyone else had to move offices. The other two units were happy not to have to deal with the unit that was leaving. And the other BAU teams didn't mind the move at all. Of course the unit leaving that area was unhappy, especially given that they would be working out of storage areas as the BAU moved out of their space and in to the new one, but Cruz gave their Unit Chief a stern talking to. He was still pissed though, as well as his men. "We might need to isolate further." Tara said, as they watched him storm out.

"How?" Morgan asked.

"Manipulate the security system. Assign them one bank of elevators, we get the other one. Assign them one entry door, we get the other one. We'll naturally gravitate to the corresponding parking lots."

"Okay, we should not have to worry about this." JJ said. "We're all FBI."

"As my momma always said, 'should' and 'is' are two different words." Tara replied.

"I know."

* * *

It took the better part of a week but eventually it was done. Their new space had the same layout, offices in the same places, same conference room, Garcia in the same lair. The bullpen was a little smaller, but not enough to make it seem crowded. And to get to the new break room you had to go out to the elevator lobby and turn left, but the break room was bigger. They even moved the glass doors. It worked.

And they never said anything to Spencer. Moving that other unit away from Andi's people was reason enough for the change. "This is nice." Spencer said when he stopped by after a morning's ride to pick up some consults to work on and unpack his desk.

"Yeah, it works well." Morgan replied. He noticed one of the guys in the break room looking at Spencer's clothes, the jeans and boots and hat. Son of a...

"I didn't know there was a place to ride Western style around here." The other agent said. "I thought all the stables around here were English."

Spencer smiled. "So did I but the riding club here on base is set up for it."

"There's a riding club on base?" The other agent was starting to smile. "How did I not know about this? Patterson, Domestic Trafficking." He offered his hand.

"Reid, BAU." Spencer accepted. "You ride?"

"Yeah, I was into rodeo riding back in high school..."

Morgan was chuckling as he went to fill his coffee.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

 **BAU Headquarters  
Quantico, VA**

On the one hand life got better over the next two weeks. It turned out there was a handful of people at the FBI who were in to horses and riding and when word got around about the riding club they all came out to volunteer and even to house their own horses there. As a result Spencer started to develop an actual, honest to God social group and one that put up with his occasional spouts of nerdy about as well as the guys back home had. Granted Morgan noticed that being around horses seemed to make his friend nerd out less often. He was bring a little more of laconic Charlie into his life, in a good sort of way.

But then word got around. "Are you serious?" Morgan had to ask one day. "A rodeo?"

"Secret Service and Border Patrol learned about our riding club." Spencer said. "They issued a challenge."

"We have to take this on." Peterson added. "It's a moral imperative."

"And you're going for this?" Morgan asked after they had moved off to the BAU office. "You're going to do this?"

Spencer considered this a moment. "You know, I never really had the chance to be good at team sports. After Gary Michaels Mom was too nervous to let me join any teams or even go out to play, and when I was in high school I was too young to try out for any of the teams. But this is something I've had a chance to learn and practice over the years, to the point where I was actually pretty good. Now that I'm integrated I'm confident in my ability to get back to that level of performance."

"So..."

"So to use the vernacular, it's on like Donkey Kong." Spencer smiled. "Border Patrol may be tough but the Secret Service is going down."

And he said that with a straight face too. Morgan couldn't help laughing. "Border Patrol might be tough?"

"Some of those guys ride on duty."

"Good point. You know we will all be out there as your cheering section."

"I sincerely hope so."

* * *

 **Fairmont Hotel  
Washington DC**

Garcia took Caroline out to some of her social gatherings around hobbies, where she quickly picked up her own brace of friends, people who liked her and accepted her as she was. Caroline might be less career focused than Sara had been, but that didn't seem to be a bad deal for her. She still enjoyed her work, and the NSA was quite happy with it so far, but she also took time for herself, to relax in healthy ways. Even though she still clung to the belief that she was somehow roughly 130 years old she was finding ways to balance that with the modern world in ways that allowed her to function well. Tara said that she would eventually let go of that belief naturally, once she'd had more time away from the abuse, and in the mean time accepting it and working with it and not against it was allowing her to find a healthy balance.

On the other hand they had yet to find the terrorist leader, and there was no reason to believe that they were not still after Project Moonlight/Starlight and the people working on it, so Spencer and Caroline were still stuck in protective custody. Bodyguards still followed them everywhere. And they were still living in the hotel. "This is getting so annoying." Caroline grumbled as she looked out at the snow. "I want to be finding a new place to live. I want to be moving in. I want us to have a home already."

"Where we are is home." Spencer replied. He was quite comfortable, he had coffee and books and a few things scattered about that made the hotel room feel older than it was, what more did he need.

"Yes, but I always wanted a place I could truly retreat to, one that just felt right. Now that I can do that I really want to try."

"I know. We'll get there." He checked the clock. "We have group tonight. Might be a good place to bring it up."

"Yeah."

* * *

 **Capitol Hill Counseling Center  
Washington DC**

This was the one place where they would go without body guards. Granted the body guards waited outside the room for them, but they didn't come in. "We've known these people for years." Spencer had explained. "There's trust there. And they expect privacy. We'll take this risk."

He should have known.

As the door closed behind them Spencer noticed the tension in the room. What was usually a fairly happy, chatty group was completely quiet. "What's going on?" He asked.

One of the younger men handed him something just as Spencer heard some heavy thumps outside the room. Which was why he didn't look closely at what was being pressed into his hand. "They told me to give you this." The younger man said.

Spencer looked down at what he was holding just as the light on it turned from red to green. "They?"

"Deadman switch." A voice with a heavy accent said. Two men stepped out from behind a screen in a corner of the room, one that usually concealed filing cabinets. "The device is out there." He pointed to a truck parked outside. "Beside Capitol Power Plant. You understand, yes?"

Spencer understood. If he let go... "What do you want?"

"We have what we want." The man who wasn't talking stepped up and took Caroline by the arm, firmly.

"No! Let me go!" She started fighting, but he was twice her size. "Let me go! Spencer!"

"Caroline!" He started after her, but if he let go of the switch the device would go off. And he'd taken it in his shooting hand. Damn it all!

"Spencer!" They were already pulling her away. Where were the guards? Where were the guards?

Breathe. Breathe. Fight the desire to run away into the darkness and let someone else take over. Fight. _Fight_. Spencer needed to focus, he needed all of his resources now, not just a few. He needed to be in control of his own mind. _Fight_. He turned to the people in the room, all scared, all damaged, all willing to try. "Okay, here's what I need..."

* * *

.

* * *

And just as I am starting to wind up this story MGG posted a picture of himself in old-time western clothing on his Twitter feed. Go take a look if you want to see what one of those pictures in Grandpa Orville's house looked like.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 28**

 **Capitol Hill Counseling Center  
Washington DC**

It took far too long even though they managed it fairly quickly. Eventually though, Spencer was able to hand the now deactivated switch over to Derek Morgan. "Good thing this place has security cameras." He said.

"They work with domestic violence cases here." Spencer replied. He was shaking out fingers gone numb with effort. "They have to be careful. Was Garcia able to run facial recognition?"

"She was. We have names, she's tracking financial patterns and vehicles. We'll find her."

"Soon I hope. Has there been a request for the project data yet?"

"Not so far."

"That's strange."

"I know. If they don't want her for that then why do they want her?"

"I don't know. That's the only valuable thing she's ever worked on. What happened to the guards?"

"Tasers. They'll be okay. So will the people here, we're getting them help." Morgan looked at him carefully. "How are you holding up?"

"In one piece so far." Spencer had been so tempted to slip and let Joseph take over, to be alone with his fears and grief and to not have to think or focus. But right now Caroline needed him, all of him. "I'm hanging in there."

"Good. Let's go back to the office and work from there."

Just then Morgan's phone rang. "Tell me you got something good baby girl."

"I have!" Garcia replied. "I found them!"

* * *

 **10501 Chapel Rd  
Potomac, MD**

Not where they expected terrorists to take Caroline. They were assembling behind a very large house out in a very expensive suburb of DC. It was the kind of place that could have subsumed Rossi's 'mansion' into the hallway. Thankfully there were enough hedges and trees out back to hide the assembling SWAT team, as well as the BAU. "The NSA satellites help us track them." Hotch said. "Once Garcia found them on the DC security camera network."

"That's a lot of technological firepower." Rossi replied. He looked over at Spencer. "What do you do for them anyway?"

"Kind of a lot." Spencer's new vest did kind of bind up under the arm a bit, but he would get used to it. "Why are they here?"

"This house is owned by a shell corporation that tracks back to Peabody Electronics." JJ replied.

"Her brother did this?" Rossi asked.

"Looks that way."

"Great."

"How are you holding up?" Tara asked him quietly.

"I'm me, so far." Spencer replied. He had so dearly wanted to slip, to not have to fully be here, but Caroline needed him. And if Tom was behind this then at least some of the nightmares he had been picturing were not likely to come to pass. "I'm in control."

"Sure?"

"Reasonably."

"Yeah." Rossi said. "We don't want Charlie shooting Tom, if we can help it."

"I'm not going to shoot Tom." He was, in the end, Caroline's brother. That just added a whole new level on the usual rules of trying not to shoot suspects.

"How about not hitting Tom?" Tara asked.

Spencer didn't reply to that one. Charlie dearly wanted to take a swing at Tom for this. Just one good swing, maybe in the jaw. That might learn him...no, must stay as Spencer right now. Must.

"Incoming." Garcia said over their headsets. "The satellite is showing a car entering the drive."

"What kind of car?" Hotch asked.

"The expensive kind."

"Good." Rossi said. "Maybe we can catch Tom in the act."

A few minutes later, as they were creeping up to the house, they saw lights go on in the library. A few minutes later Tom Peabody dragged Caroline in by the arm and threw her against the desk. She caught herself easily and turned to face him. "What the hell are you doing?" She all but screeched at him.

The FBI agents crouched under the window to listen.

"What the hell am I doing? What the hell are _you_ doing? Why are you deliberately screwing me over? What did I ever do to you?" Tom yelled back.

"How am I screwing you over? You started this! You hired these people!"

"Because of you! I had to do something before you ruined everything!"

"How was I running everything?"

"By making me look bad, that's how! You've been a screw-up your entire life..."

"I have not been a screw-up!"

"...and the one time I decide to go with it and not try to solve your problems for you you go and screw that up too!"

"What are you talking about!"

"I shorted the company stock!"

That stopped the argument for a moment. "You what?" Caroline asked in a quieter voice.

"I shorted the stock, all right! You've always screwed up, your crazy has always gotten in the way of everything. I knew you wouldn't be able to pull off Project Starlight. So I shorted the company stock. I bet on your failure. I didn't count on how manipulative you can be, you little twit. Somehow you managed to convince the NSA that you're actually good and they should be happy with your work."

"I'm not manipulating..."

"So I had to do something to destroy the project." Tom spoke right over her. "But I had to do it without breaking the contract. If there was a major security breech they'd cancel the whole thing but they wouldn't go after us. The stock would drop and I'd make millions."

"You thought I would fail?"

"Of course! You fail at everything! But now not only have you convinced the NSA and the FBI but somehow you've convinced the board that you have an embezzlement case against me! They kicked me out of my own company! If I can't pull this off I'm ruined!"

There was a long pause, before. "And they say I'm the crazy one in the family." Caroline said.

There was the sound of movement before. "Where do you think you're going?" Tom asked.

"Out to the gate, to wait for the FBI to show up." Caroline replied.

"No you're not!" There was the sound of a brief scuffle. "You're staying right here until I can sort out this mess! I will not let you lie and manipulate your way out of this one!"

"They're only going to see how crazy you are Tom!"

They heard the sound of skin hitting skin. "Shut up!"

"That's our cue." Tara said.

But it was never that easy. They were trying to sneak up on the mercenaries watching the house but they had guards up. They went around the corner, were spotted, and the fire fight got underway. The team had good cover, they were doing what they had to do, but a minute or so in the mercenaries called in reinforcements. "Morgan!" Spencer called out as two of the bad guys came up behind them.

But there was no time.

Before he could think Spencer drew and fired. Cowboy style.

The mercenary that was about to shoot his friend went down. Very likely wounded. Not something anyone liked to do but you shouldn't point guns at FBI agents. Morgan looked and turned to Spencer, as shocked as he was at his sudden skill. "Thanks."

Spencer had very likely just saved his friends life, by daring to let Charlie in again. Now he could never let that go. "Yeah."

Minutes later they were storming into the library. "Tom Peabody!" Hotch called.

Tom spun around, grabbed Caroline, pulled a gun from his pocket and pressed it to her temple. "Don't come any closer!" He said. "I can explain."

"Big mistake." Tara murmured.

As they watched Caroline's eyes seemed to go blank, then harden. "Let go of her you bastard!" She growled in a voice deeper and stronger than her own. Her elbows went back hard, causing Tom to double over in surprise. Even as he was reacting she was reaching up to break the hold he had on her, catching his gun hand, pivoting, and throwing him over her shoulder and right through the coffee table. It splintered as he landed on it. Somehow she kept the gun he was holding, but she held it down at her side, pointed at the ground.

Of course now all the guns in the room were pointed at her. But Spencer took a deep breath, put his away, and stepped between her and the rest of the team. "Ellen." He said calmly, his hands up to show that he was not a threat. "It's all right. Caroline's not in any danger. My name is Charlie, I know she knows me."

"She does." Caroline/Ellen said in that same, stern voice.

"We're all here to protect her. I know she's grateful for your help but she doesn't need you right now."

There was a pause while Caroline/Ellen surveyed the scene, the agents taking her brother into custody, the ones marching the mercenaries he hired away through the window. "You're right." She said in that same voice. Then she handed him the gun.

Spencer passed it off to someone behind him. "Thank you." He said.

Caroline/Ellen met his eyes and gave him a small nod. Then her eyes fluttered closed and she slumped slightly before her eyes opened again. "Spencer?" She asked in her normal voice. "What happened? I was having a fight with Tom and..."

"It's all right." Spencer said as he pulled her into his arms. "Everything is going to be all right now."


	28. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

 **Quantico Riding Club  
Quantico, VA**

So there was a rodeo.

The FBI team got involved, of course, and the Secret Service, because that rivalry ran deep, and the Border Patrol because they had to prove they were better with horses, and then the DEA and ATF had to get involved because there was honor on the line and pretty soon they had a full blown thing going. They arraigned for judges from the USMC base at Quantico who would be impartial, agreed on five events drawn from different types of completion that emphacized riding skill over stock work, and selected a team member to compete in each event. Then they decided to pass the hat and get a guy to come out with a smoker, set up for a BBQ, and make a family day of it. They even had a DJ coming in and rented a dance floor.

Even Derek Morgan had to admit, this was a good idea.

"He looks different." Hotch said.

They were watching the riders get set up for the pole riding competition. It was the third event of the day, Border Patrol won the first, FBI the second. Spencer was competing for the FBI on Lucky. "Does anyone know why they only let each horse compete once?" JJ asked.

"They don't want to overwork them." Morgan replied. "And they judge the horses performance as well, as a way of determining how good of a trainer each rider is, so they don't want to take them out tired."

"And you know all this why?" Will asked.

Morgan chuckled. "My little brother has a thing. I want to support him."

"He's confident." Rossi replied to Hotch. "When he was playing with the softball team he was sure he was going to lose, and end up losing the game for the team. He was sure he was going to fail everyone. But look at him now, that's the body language of someone who knows what he's going and believes he can make a good showing of himself. He's part of the team now."

"That's a sign of good integration." Tara added. "He's pretty healthy these days."

"I think he's beautiful." Caroline said, with stars in her eyes.

They chuckled and left that. "Didn't I hear some of the downstairs units saying something about him competing in a traditionally woman's event?" Rossi asked.

"I heard that." Tara replied. "But it seems to have rolled off him. Likely because the rest of the rodeo team, and Morgan, gave them hell right back. Sometimes the healthiest thing you can have is friends who have your back."

"I'm just glad he has that here now, and not just in Nevada." Hotch said.

"Next event, pole bending." The announcer called.

Each rider took a turn, the order determined for each event. In this case the FBI was going last. No one knew if this was good or not, but it was what it was and they had to work with it. Border Patrol went first with a female agent who had competed before. She made a very good run, a decent time and no penalties. DEA and ATF also had female agents riding, but ones without experience, they were slower and knocked poles down, resulting in penalties. The Secret Service sent in a male rider who lumbered like an ox down and back, knocking over most of the poles. He was so bad everyone agreed on giving him another try, on the off chance that the horse had just done that badly, but no, he was just as bad the second time. And then it was the FBI's turn.

Everyone sat forward. "Here we go." JJ said.

The buzzer sounded.

Spencer and Lucky were off like a shot.

Within seconds it was over. It was a clean run, not a pole was even touched. And when they stopped at the end...

"That's the best time." Tara said.

...and no penalties.

There was cheering from the FBI section of the stands. This put them in the lead, never a bad thing. But the BAU cheered the hardest, because Spencer had won. And not by luck this time, he worked for it and he did it. And they were all very proud.

From the look on his face he was too.

* * *

In the end the Secret Service was handily crushed. They would be smarting from this loss until next year's competition. The Border Patrol was a tough competitor. But the FBI beat them by the slimmest of margins. "Is it wrong to say that Spence won this?" JJ asked as they were walking over to the BBQ.

"I don't know." Morgan replied. "This is a team effort but he got a real high score in his event. It certainly helped."

"Where is he, anyway?" Rossi asked.

"I don't know." JJ replied. "Will and Henry went off to find him."

"You know you people are blocking the trail." Said a familiar voice behind them.

The entire group turned to find Spencer riding Lucky. But in front of him was a much smaller figure, tucked in between his arms. "Hi Mom!" Henry said. "I'm going to be a cowboy!"

"Oh god." JJ replied as Will joined her.

"Don't worry." Will said. "That hat is actually a helmet. He's fine."

"Can I take riding lessons Dad?" Jack asked.

Hotch groaned in reply.

"We have some riding to do." Spencer told JJ. "We'll be back for supper."

"You better, cowboy." Caroline replied. "You promised me a dance tonight."

"Reid, dancing?" Morgan said. "This I have to see."

"Oh god." JJ turned and buried her head against Will's shoulder.

With a nudge Spencer got Lucky moving again and headed for the sunset.

* * *

.

* * *

And thus ends another story. Much thanks to P for being my advanced reader.

OK, another one is starting up, one that I actually wrote a few years back, published elsewhere and never finished. Seems I am finishing things this year. Hope to see you all for the next one.

\- TKL


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